Rebirth Through Death
by FenrisRoots
Summary: Death isn't something than can be ignored under normal circumstances, however Naruto was never the sort of person to care if something was supposed to be impossible as he discards his humanity and becomes a monster. Grey/vampire Naruto. DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

I have found myself unable to regain my inspiration for this fic and so it is hereby being transferred to this profile under the decision of making it discontinued.

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Pain. There was a distinct absence of the sensation flowing through the body of Uzumaki Naruto as he lay on a cold concrete surface. It wasn't that he was perfectly fine, it was simply that the injury he had received was so clean and immense that he couldn't feel it.

Fear on the other hand was completely overwhelming him. He had been distracted by the snow white rabbit he had terrified by throwing a kunai into a bush when he was trying to impress his crush… unfortunately for him, that distraction had cost him dearly.

While the rest of the team had managed to duck, he hadn't noticed the enormous cleaver that came flying out of nowhere until it had practically bifurcated him.

So here he was, the only sounds he could hear being the screams of his teammates as they witnessed their first true exposure to the brutality of the shinobi career.

He could feel the life drain from his body as he lay, barely enough strength to move. He knew things were happening around him as his vision blurred, the scene quickly changed from green to grey as he heard people talking though he couldn't make out what was said.

Images started to rush through his head, some things he had long forgotten rushed back to him as his life flashed before him. Then he remembered something. Then he remembered words he had said many times before… he would never give up.

It was the clearest thing in his mind, no matter how hard things seemed he refused to give up so what was so different this time?

Determination flooded his body as he reached forward, his hand ready to grasp anything within reach in the stubborn thought that it might be able to help him survive.

Suddenly he felt a soft and warm surface, it pulsated before struggling when he grasped it, his resolve to live overcoming his condition.

Bringing it into view, the blond was shocked to see that the rabbit that had put him in this position was now firmly within his grasp and in a callous and selfish move… he bit down.

Immediately he felt resistance as it's flexible flesh moulded to his teeth's form, the more it resisted, the harder he bit, until at last, he tasted a bitter liquid on his tongue. He tried to pull back but despite the effort he placed behind the action, he simply couldn't move enough to tear anything from the animal… so he settled to just suck on it… he would suck it dry and hope it would keep him alive long enough for Kakashi-sensei to treat his wound.

He sucked on the helpless animal as images started to flow through the front of his mind, images of a cage, of a young girl and a large man with a cleaver, images of the girl treating him kindly while the man simply didn't care… then he saw a kunai, flying past his head before witnessing… Himself?

He was young, only twelve years old, his spiky blond hair stuck out in every direction as he wore a large orange jumpsuit with blue patches, while a blue headband held a metal place with a stylized leaf pattern etched onto it… then he saw a familiar cleaver slicing straight through him, his blood spraying over his team as he collapsed in a heap.

He then noticed a thick mist roll in as the large man that owned the cleaver stood atop the ocean and used a strange hand seal… then he felt pain. Someone had grabbed his skin. That was when he realised what he was seeing.

He wasn't seeing his own memories, he was seeing the memories of the very rabbit he was draining dry.

Confusion racked his brain as the now thoroughly dead pet stopped giving him the liquid that allowed it to live. It wasn't confusion that the rabbit had run out of blood or that it was dead, his confusion was caused by the vitality that he felt flowing through his veins.

Just moments ago he was certain he had been dying and now… now he was finally able to stand and with that came a realisation, his wound was no longer there.

Suddenly he got a strange tingling sensation up his spine, he didn't know why but he received an urge to duck… so duck he did.

Immediately he was grateful that he had listened to his intuition as a large cleaver passed where his neck was once located, before disappearing back into the mist.

Fear gripped Naruto as his mind raced over what would happen if he received another injury like he had before… what he didn't know however was that the owner of the cleaver was even more terrified than him.

XXX XXX XXX

Momochi Zabuza wasn't easily scared, he was considered a demon among his colleagues before he turned traitor, however when you have essentially gutted a person and they get back up it isn't a normal situation.

He had never known of anyone able to regenerate to such an immense degree, the child's top and bottom halves had only been held together by about two inches at the most, he should've died there and then but no only had he gotten back up, he had also dodged his last strike.

Of course, he still had his mist keeping him hidden from his enemies, meaning that the advantage was still his and he would keep his advantage until the bridge builder was dead.

Once again, he swung, his aim to kill the child that could survive mortal wounds.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto didn't know why but he suddenly had the urge to guard from his left with a kunai, something that he thought would be best after what happened the last time he trusted his instinct.

Placing a kunai to guard himself, he was shocked when the massive blade hit his guard, knocking him to the side a few feet. However the strike shocked him more than he thought it would… not because it happened but because of how easily he blocked it.

Despite being moved several feet to the side, his arms barely felt the impact, it felt less like getting smacked by a sledgehammer and more like getting tapped with a pencil… which he was certain shouldn't be the case given that he knew it moved him.

His guard was also completely uncompromised… though he quickly realised that the same couldn't be said for his kunai, which currently had the edge of a three foot wide blade embedded halfway into it.

Once again the blade retreated and once again the boy received the urge to guard, however his curiosity got the better of him as he moved his hand to the area he felt the sword would appear from.

Much to his surprise his feeling was once again right, however this time he didn't block the blade… instead he succeeded in catching it.

XXX XXX XXX

Fear was making itself know through Zabuza's head as he tried pulling his sword back after his second blocked strike only to find that it wouldn't budge. He knew from the sound of cracking metal that the last strike had been blocked by the child, he didn't know how, just that it was, but this time it simply stopped, no sound of cracking metal, slicing flesh… nothing.

It was the single most confusing moment of his life… until his blade was suddenly jerked with enough force to break his grip on it. The next thing he knew he was dodging a wide swing as he realised something he hadn't before… the boy was a monster.

XXX XXX XXX

Hatake Kakashi was quite an experienced man. He realised as soon as his blond student had pulled the white rabbit out of the bush that it was an ambush and proceeded to order his students to duck while dragging their client to the ground with him.

Unfortunately one of them was too distracted by the rabbit and right before the entire teams eyes he was struck down in what was one of the worst ways possible.

Kakashi knew that Naruto wouldn't survive an injury like that, however as it stood he was too busy making sure the rest of his team and the client were safe… which meant he couldn't go and put the blond out of his misery.

A sudden clang of steel on steel caught his ears from a direction similar to where the blond had been struck down, causing the Jōnin to question if something had happened.

He began to question if he should go and see what was happening, however it could have easily been a trap to make him leave his group unprotected and make the bridge builder an easy target, so he decided against it.

Then he heard the sound of pierced flesh and with it a grunt of pain… one recognisable as the swordsman they were facing off against.

XXX XXX XXX

Zabuza couldn't believe it, he had dodged a second swing when he was caught off guard by a kunai directed at him, it's sound hidden by the sound of the sword that was swung by the blond.

The problem however was where the knife landed… several feet behind him. despite it only hitting his shoulder it had proven to have enough force behind it to pierce straight through him, including the hoop on the end of the handle.

The pain was immense. Had it only pierced him it would've been easy to ignore, however the fact that it had pushed all the way through him caused the pain to change completely and he soon found his concentration on his technique disappear.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto could feel it, his initial idea to use the sound of the sword to cover the sound of a flying kunai had worked perfectly as the sound of slicing flesh he heard along with the swordsman's grunt had told him.

Immediately he noticed the mist becoming thinner as the older ninja's concentration had been destroyed by the successful attack. He knew that once the mist was gone he would gain the advantage since he would be able to see his enemy once again. However confusion racked his brain as the mist began to thin out and he felt something he hadn't felt before.

Looking at his hands terror began to flow through his mind as he saw his skin beginning to sear in the small amount of sunlight that was filtering through the vapour. Steam rose from his flesh as it quickly tanned in the minor levels of light, his biggest problem however was not that he was burning but the fact that he didn't know why he was.

Unaware of the reason behind his sudden roasting he could do nothing more than stare in terror before his world erupted in pain.

XXX XXX XXX

Kakashi couldn't believe his eyes as the mist cleared slowly. Standing just a few feet from Zabuza was someone he was certain he was going to have to bury once the fight was over.

Despite his immense relief at the fact the blond was still alive, he couldn't help but wonder how it had happened. From what he had seen the boy had essentially been bisected, even with the small thread of flesh keeping his torso with his waist there was no way he should've survived the wound… let alone survive AND fight, which judging by the fact the boy had the Kiri nin's weapon was the case.

Just as the silver haired man was about to make his move to strike down the swordsman, something happened that he couldn't explain… his student that he had seen take the mortal injury, spontaneously combusted. That is to say, once second he was standing with a legendary sword in his hand and the next he had dropped it as fire engulfed his form.

XXX XXX XXX

Zabuza couldn't help but stare in confusion. One second the blond had been his greatest threat to date and then he was on fire. Those two events simply had no relation in the Kiri nin's mind and he simply couldn't bring himself to understand why the blond had suddenly decided to combust in front of him.

Shaking his head he decided it didn't really matter and picked up his sword that the blond had dropped and in one fluid movement, moved to take the blonds head.

Or he would have if a single kunai didn't block his blades path. Attached to the kunai was the person he had initially pegged as the biggest threat… one he had forgotten courtesy of the strange child.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto couldn't help but thrash around as the fire consumed his body, he had no idea why he had caught on fire and wondered if it was some strange technique in Zabuza's arsenal, but then he remembered, Zabuza was from Kirigakure no sato, so a Katon jutsu like this wouldn't really fit his profile.

Suddenly he thought he heard something in the back of his mind, he wasn't quite sure because of the noise occurring in the front of his mind at the time so he tried to quiet the front down so he could hopefully hear whatever was being said in the back of his mind.

"_**G... … … ..e light,"**_ suddenly crept into his mind, causing him to wonder what it was saying.

"_Sorry, I can't quite hear you, can you speak up a little bit?"_ he asked wondering if there was any point in doing so.

"_**GET OUT OF THE LIGHT!" **_that time his definitely heard it.

Deciding he didn't have anything else to try he opened his eyes as much as he could manage and in desperation, threw himself towards the closest forest… in hindsight that didn't seem like the smartest thing to do, but this time, hindsight would be wrong.

As soon as he entered the shadows cast by the trees, the fire that had consumed him died down until he was left with nothing more than scorched flesh… which made him thankful he collapsed face first… even if he would have to mourn his jumpsuit.

XXX XXX XXX

Out of every being watching the situation there was only one that had any idea of what was happening. The main problem however was that it was currently locked up behind a cage and trying to figure out the easiest way to communicate with the child.

It had been lucky before when the boy had decided to listen to whatever he thought he had heard… knowing his level of intelligence he probably thought it was his subconscious or something equally stupid.

Calmly thinking it had decided that the current turn of events could work in its favour if the blond was willing to listen to it… they could both benefit from an alliance, something it wouldn't have considered if the boy was still human.

XXX XXX XXX

Outside of Kakashi, Zabuza, Naruto and the two unseen observers, there were three other people. All three of them had no experience in dealing with the sort of situation they were in and when they had witnessed the whiskered child get cleaved in half, their first instinct was to run… something that they did until they were stopped by the silver haired Jōnin. They had however succeeded in putting enough distance so that they couldn't see their comrades corpse.

None of them realised when the mist had cleared, the sheer level of shock they were in had completely destroyed their mental processes and rendered them all nothing more than terrified children (though one of them was technically an old man), the only other action except stand in a stupor that they made was to eject their lunch through the same area they had used to put it in their stomach in the first place.

XXX XXX XXX

Kakashi and Zabuza however both stopped for a second when reality suddenly decided that it didn't want the blond to be on fire anymore and put him out at the edge of the forest surrounding them… then they started to fight each other some more.

XXX XXX XXX

Now that he was no longer on fire, Naruto couldn't help but groan in pain as his flesh let him know it had been in better shape… well nearly all the time.

"_**Can you hear me?" **_came a call that the child recognised as the voice that told him to get out of the light.

"_Yeah, I think so,"_ he responded, wondering why it sounded so different to his regular thoughts.

"_**I'll take that as a simple yes then… now, are you willing to listen to what I tell you?"**_ the voice asked, it's tone was deep and powerful, causing the blond to wonder where it got the power from.

"_I guess so… I mean you saved me before didn't you?"_

"_**Good, and to answer your question, yes I did, now look around and tell me if you see anything with blood,"**_ the strange voice told him calmly causing his eyes to dart around the area searching for anything alive… unfortunately he couldn't pick out anything within the forest except a small bird that zipped around faster than he could possibly catch it.

"_Well there's a bird," _he told the voice earning a sigh of frustration off the deep voice.

"_**Well then, I guess you're just going to have to wait for your sensei to kill that swordsman before you can heal yourself."**_

"_Huh? what do you mean by that? How can I heal myself?"_ the whiskered boy asked in confusion as he kept looking around.

"_**You can heal yourself by drinking blood,"**_ suddenly Naruto began to question the voice in his head, wondering if he wasn't simply going insane and hallucinating the entire situation so far, it made more sense than what appeared to be happening.

"_Riiiight... And why should I believe that drinking blood will help?" _he asked with sarcasm clear in his voice at the beginning.

"_**Believe what you want, but you can't deny you at least believe that you healed after draining that rabbit dry," **_the voice at the back of his mind told him and despite his inability to believe what it told him, he couldn't help but agree.

Suddenly his back erupted in pain causing him to look upwards and see a sight he didn't think he would… his sensei standing over him with what looked to be a first aid kit.

"_**I wonder… does that kit have blood replenishment pills?"**_ the voice asked suddenly, causing the blond to wonder why it asked, _**"they aren't as good as genuine blood but they should work to a certain extent."**_

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto started upon hearing the voices statement.

"It's alright Naruto, Zabuza is dead," he stated calmly, as he sat down next to the boy and opened the kit, ready to tend to the boys injuries.

"Do you have blood pills?" he asked anyway, causing the Jōnin to look at him in confusion, "I think I lost a bit too much blood, my head feels light."

"Alright, I'll get one out for you," the man told him calmly, his hitae-ate now covering one of his eyes once again, before he pulled out a small red pill which he calmly put in the blonds mouth.

"_**It looks like I was wrong about the pill," **_the voice told him calmly after analysing the components of the pill.

"_What do you mean by that?"_ Naruto asked it without hesitation.

"_**the pill works by encouraging your body to produce more blood than normal, which your body no longer does full stop,"**_ the voice stated seriously, resulting in confusion washing over the child's mind at the statement.

"_What do you mean my body doesn't make more blood anymore?"_ it was a simple question and one that very few people ever get to ask.

"_**I'll explain later, for now, just let it be,"**_ Naruto may not have liked the statement but there wasn't really anything he could do concerning it and if it would tell him later, then he just hoped he wouldn't have to wait too long for answers.

Kakashi couldn't help but wonder why the blond had spontaneously combusted, he knew Zabuza didn't have a technique like that and he was certain the blond didn't know any form of suicide jutsu that he could've gotten wrong to achieve those results.

In the end he simply decided that he would be better off not thinking about it and just tend to the boy's burns, which were already showing signs of healing, he wasn't surprised, the boy was supposed to have a high regenerative rate anyway.

In the end, all his mind could come up with for the boy surviving Zabuza's attack was the Kyūbi deciding to preserve his life and using it's chakra to heal him, he would've thought he would feel the malicious aura but he wasn't a sensor type so he wouldn't question it.

Once he had finished dealing with the boys injuries he proceeded to look around for the blonds backpack and then remembered… it was on him when he caught fire.

So here the child was, lying at the edge of a forest with the only form of clothing in his possession being the metal plate of his hitae-ate. Fortunately the squad leader hadn't trusted the children to be sensible and had packed some spare clothes for a situation he could imagine, involving Naruto, Sasuke's clothes and one word… prank.

He never thought it would be Naruto that would be wearing these clothes.

XXX XXX XXX

Silence reigned as the group headed along the road to Nami no Kuni, Haruno Sakura was unusually quiet as she tried to figure out how her blond teammate was still alive… and why he insisted on wearing a hooded cloak with one of Kakashi-sensei's masks… and gloves that covered his fingers as well. It didn't make sense to her (or any of her teammates) as to why he would want to wear so much clothing in weather that was as nice as it currently was.

They had only been on the road for a couple of hours when they finally arrived at their destination, a small Inn situated on stilts at the shore of the ocean, it was the home of the man they had been paid to escort, the bridge builder named Tazuna.


	2. Chapter 2

Silence reigned through the Tazuna residence as no one could bring themselves to ask the one question on all but one person's mind… what had happened to Naruto?

Everyone that knew what had conspired on the way to Nami knew that the boy had been cleaved in two but here he was, sitting at the table, wearing a cloak and facemask his sensei had given him in an attempt to maintain at least a semblance of modesty.

The only person in the house that didn't possess these thoughts was a young woman with long dark hair, a fair complexion and dark eyes. She was wearing a light pink sweater and a dark skirt, all in all she looked just like any other civilian, something to be expected when she was the bridge builders daughter and possessed no form of training.

Then again, the tension in the room was almost palpable, allowing even the least perceptive of individuals to figure out something wasn't right with the group in front of her… however she just assumed it was because the mission was more dangerous than they had expected.

Finally the silver haired Jōnin decided that he had to ask the boy the question on their minds, after all, the sooner it was gotten out of the way, the sooner the group could start focusing on the more important matters… such as the swordsman's escape.

"Naruto?" almost immediately the currently cloaked form of his student turned to face him, the light that had been a permanent feature of them before no longer anywhere to be seen as tears threatened to fall from them.

"Kakashi-sensei… what am I?" the question was asked with clear desperation, the simple question telling the man everything he needed to know… the boy before him didn't know what had happened either, "am I still alive?"

Almost immediately everyone in the room tensed, why had the boy asked a question with such an obvious answer? Sure he had been fatally injured but he had managed to survive one way or another, even if no one knew how he had done so.

"What do you mean? You are here with us, you are talking, you are moving, why wouldn't you be alive?" Kakashi asked the boy, his mind beginning to grow concerned about the boys mental health after such a traumatic situation.

"I… I can't find my pulse," the statement caused several eyes to stare at him blankly before the one eyed ninja stood up and walked towards the boy, placing his fingers to the boys neck, just where his pulse should've been. Seconds passed and the one visible eye on the Jōnin began to give off a sense of disbelief, soon an entire minute had passed and the man proceeded to push the boy away from the table, shocking the people present as he moved his ear to the boys chest, focusing chakra the audio receptor to enhance the sense.

Once again the man's eye began to show a level of disbelief as several minutes passed before he finally removed his head from the boys chest.

"That's impossible… how?" despite all his experience, despite all his training, the Jōnin had never come across a situation such as the one he currently found himself in, a situation he had long ago registered as physically impossible.

"K-Kakashi-sensei? What's wrong? What's impossible?" Sakura couldn't help but ask with a hint of fear in her tone as she witnessed her sensei trying to find the boys heartbeat, her mind had already come to a conclusion however she didn't want to believe it, accepting it as possible would deny everything she knew about life and how to identify when a person was dead.

"Naruto's heart… isn't beating," instantly everyone except the blond himself gasped at the idea that someone who was literally walking and talking among them had no heartbeat, that they appeared to be clinically dead despite their activity.

"What's going on with me? What am I? Am I alive or dead? Am I even human anymore?" the others in the room could do nothing but look at him with a mix of shock and pity, they knew they couldn't bring themselves to understand what was going on in the boys mind right now, unlike him they had never been forced into a situation where they had to ask if they were dead or alive with no clear answer in sight.

"I don't know, I guess the only real way of describing what you are right now is… a paradox, neither dead or alive, yet you have the characteristics of both, some type of 'no-life' that isn't death… dammit, I'm no philosopher, I can't really describe what's going on with you," the hint of anger in the man's voice was noticeable, however the important part was that everyone could tell where it was directed, at his own inability to comfort his student.

"Do you think the old man will have any idea about what's happened to me?" came a question from the young blond, causing the Jōnin to look at him with a hint of regret seeping into his eye.

"It's possible but I doubt it, I've never even heard rumours of anything like this happening so I think you are a special case, something truly unique," the silver haired Jōnin said seriously, he didn't want to get the boy's hopes up for nothing so he made certain he knew he would probably have to find out everything about himself alone.

Almost instantly the silver haired Jōnin's eye moved towards the door, a certain edge seeping into it as he picked up on something the genin couldn't. Slowly standing from his seat the one eyed man walked towards the door just before a light thump came from the wooden barrier.

The entire room tensed as the light thumping started repeating itself while the most experienced ninja slowly made his way towards the entrance, ready to deal with whatever might be on the other side.

It took an instant for the man to open the door and pick out his target… upon which he immediately closed the door without doing anything else, causing the rest of the people in the room to look at him in confusion.

"It's… a rabbit," the one eyed man said nervously, causing the group to give him a strange look before he decided to expand on the statement, "it is a white furred rabbit… with a broken neck… and covered in blood… I hate to say it but I think we're dealing with some sort of zombie rabbit."

Almost immediately the looks of confusion changed to looks of rage as they began to wonder exactly what the man was trying to pull while the thumping continued to pound into their minds.

"Kakashi-sensei, there is no such thing as zombies, let alone zombie rabbits," Sakura stated as she continued to sit at the table, annoyance at his antics clear in her eyes as she wondered why he was keeping the door closed.

"Then you can deal with this 'nonexistent zombie rabbit' in my place," the green clad ninja said with a hint of relief in his tone as the pinkette began to splutter indignantly at the man passing the task of dealing with whatever was behind the door to her.

"Fine!" she shouted upon deciding that she shouldn't disobey her superiors orders even if she didn't like the idea of being the one to deal with whatever he had turned away from before.

Stomping away from the table, she pulled out her kunai just in case it was something dangerous on the other side of the door and after taking a few seconds to steady herself, she opened the door an inch and peered through the crack, looking lower when she saw nothing before repeating Kakashi's action of slamming the door closed.

"So… what is it Sakura?" the smug tone in the cycloptic Jōnin's voice made everyone in the room look at him with wide eyes before the konoichi answered.

"It's… it's… it's a… zombie rabbit," the simple fact that Sakura was prepared to say that after denying that zombies existed in the first place made the rest of the room reach a certain level of fear, if there was some sort of zombie apocalypse happening why did it have to start there?

"Okay… Naruto, how do we kill that which has no life?" Kakashi asked the boy who simply spluttered in indignation at being asked something like that.

"HOW THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW?!"

"Well… you're technically dead so I would expect you to know," the cycloptic Jōnin said while refusing to look the boy in the eye.

"Kakashi-sensei… I've been dead for less than three hours and only known for less than ten minutes, what makes you think I know anything about how to kill a zombie?" the blue eyed blond reasoned earning a non-committal shrug off the older man.

"Well, since you're already dead maybe you can reason with it and not get eaten in the process," Sakura said with a hint of desperation before running over to the blond and dragging him from his seat, earning a yelp of pain from the boy as she put pressure on his burnt skin and moved him to the door, "so go on, you deal with it."

Hissing in pain at his pink haired teammates touch the boy began to wonder why the rabbit was there in the first place, was it there to get revenge for him killing it or something completely different? He soon decided that the only way he'd find out would be by opening the door and seeing for himself.

Taking a deep breath despite figuring that he probably didn't need to breathe anymore if he was dead, he placed his hand on the handle and with a quick jerk, he opened the door to reveal the small white rabbit with a broken neck and dried blood covering its neck.

Everyone prepared themselves for its next move, each member of the group was prepared to run if they needed to. Ten seconds passed, then a minute, it soon became apparent that the rabbit was simply standing there staring at the boy that opened the door, no sign of life present in its form… well except for the fact it was still standing.

Naruto couldn't help but feel disturbed by the dead rabbits gaze and after several minutes of simply staring at it, he finally decided to put a little distance between them, taking a single large stride backwards.

The effect was immediate, where the rabbit was once standing perfectly still, it suddenly moved forwards, its legs, almost dragging it closer to the blond before stopping about the same distance from him it had started.

Once again everyone began to feel uneasy about the strange creature that was currently keeping close to the dark clad genin before he once again moved, this time to the side, resulting in the rabbit once again moving towards him, its misty eyes staring into the azure orbs in Naruto's head.

"Kakashi-sensei… the rabbits scaring me," the jinchūriki couldn't stop himself from saying as the corpse proceeded to follow his every move, never staying anywhere more than three feet from the boy.

"Why don't you try asking it to go away nicely?" Kakashi responded with a minor hint of amusement in his tone at the boys plight, earning a glare from the blond.

"What makes you think it'll listen to me?" Naruto asked in annoyance, it was almost as if the Jōnin was enjoying his pain.

"I don't know, I'm just thinking that ever since you were bisected reality seems to have decided to say 'screw normality, it's time for a change'," despite his anger at the Jōnin, the whiskered child couldn't help but agree with what the man was saying, the idea of something normal happening had ended up becoming something the group wanted as opposed to something exciting.

"Fine then, rabbit, get out of here," the blond commanded, expecting the corpse to ignore him, only to blink in surprise when it turned towards the door and proceeded to walk towards it before stopping just outside the house and turning to face the inside once again, causing the group to look at the blond with a look of annoyance on their faces as the boy looked at them with confusion clear in his eyes, "what? I wasn't expecting it to actually listen to me."

"It is official, we have to figure out what the fuck is up with you before we do anything else," Kakashi stated blankly, earning nods of agreements from everyone else, resulting in Naruto growing annoyed with the group and deciding on trying something he was sure would disturb them.

"Come here little… dead rabbit… thing," almost immediately everyone else looked at him with wide eyes as the corpse walked towards him before he lifted it and placed it on his shoulder, "now stay there until I tell you otherwise, okay?" he commanded the snow white and blood red bunny as calmly as he could, earning a small nod of confirmation from the dead mammal.

"Naruto… no corpses at the table," the masked Jōnin ordered, earning a glare from the blond in the process.

"So I'm not allowed at the table anymore? That's called being prejudiced, you sir are a racist treating us corpses like that!" the young corpse's rant rung out amongst the house, earning several sweatdrops from everyone in the building.

"Fine… no rotting corpses at the table," the cycloptic ninja amended only for his eye to start twitching at the boy when he sat at the table with the bunny on his shoulder, "Naruto… why is the rabbit still on your shoulder?"

"Because it hasn't started rotting yet," the whiskered child said in a matter of fact tone causing the silver haired man to facepalm before amending his statement again.

"Alright, no rabbits at the table," he stated with uneasiness in his visible eye upon seeing the misty eyes of the bunny stare straight at him.

"So what, you're prejudiced against rabbits now?" Naruto shot back, causing the man to groan at the boy as he kept trying to twist his words against him.

'_Dear Kami… what do I have to do to make him get rid of that damned thing?'_ almost as soon as he finished that line of thought, the silver haired Jōnin found a certain hint of fury lingering in the boys eyes.

"Well you could try keeping your mouth shut," Naruto said angrily, causing everyone at the table to look at him strangely as Kakashi blinked several times.

'_You can hear me?' _once again he didn't voice his thoughts while facing the blond, immediately noticing the boys eyes narrow.

"Of course I can, I'm not deaf ya know," almost immediately the other people around the table started looking at the boy as if he had gone insane, which as far as they were concerned he had.

"I see… Naruto, I didn't say anything," Kakashi told the blond seriously, causing the boy to suddenly blink in confusion.

"'What do you mean, I heard you clear as day!" the boy shouted at the man as he bolted to a standing position, the rabbit being forced to adjust itself to prevent itself from falling off his shoulder.

"Perhaps, but that doesn't change the fact I didn't say a thing, what you heard, were my thoughts," almost instantly everyone looked at the boy, their eyes widened to epic proportions, "you are capable of reading minds Naruto."

Immediately the other occupants confusion made sense, to them it would simply appear as though he had been talking to no one. Of course the first thing that popped into his mind upon realising exactly what was happening was to see if the opposite was true.

'_Can you hear me Kakashi-sensei?'_ he thought, his mind focusing on the older ninja, all traces of his previous anger gone as he tried to project his thoughts into his sensei.

'_Well that's surprising, you're able to speak with your mind as well… I wonder what else you can do?'_ Kakashi thought to the boy causing the room to look a little concerned by the silence between the duo.

'_Well I guess I could try linking up with other people and see if we can have a three way chat in our minds… hey Sakura-chan, can you hear me? If you can don't talk but think an answer,' _Naruto thought to the girl while simultaneously trying to keep his link with the Jōnin open.

'_Yeah, why do you want me to think back to you?' _the pink haired girl asked the boy calmly.

'_Hello Sakura.'_

'_Kakashi-sensei? Are you thinking as well?'_

'_That's right, Naruto was trying to see if we could have a conference call via mental link,' _the masked ninja informed the girl while giving her an eyesmile.

'_Hn, well that's useful for our co-ordination,'_ came the voice they recognised as belonging to Sasuke, his mind obviously connected to theirs as well.

'_Whoa, that's awesome!' _Naruto's mind said to the others, causing the group to roll their eyes at the blonds enthusiasm, _'if I focus hard enough I can see through your eyes ero-sensei.'_

'_What? Naruto, you are a minor, you are not allowed to read Icha Icha so don't use my eyes,' _came Kakashi's retort while the other genin gave the man a minor glare upon Naruto's new nickname for him.

'_Why not? I wanna find out what Yagiko and Koran will do after the oral,' _Naruto stated via mental link, causing Sasuke and Sakura to blush before the pinkette hit him over the head.

'_NARUTO-BAKA! Don't think things like that when I'm here!' _the konoichi yelled at the boy in his mind.

Of course all this silent conversation was beginning to creep out the civilians as they witnessed the changing expressions but knew nothing about the conversation that was going on.

"Um… excuse me ninja-san, please stop doing that, its kinda scary," Tsunami said trying to get the ninja to act at least slightly normal in the presence of civilians.

"Heh heh… sorry Tsunami-san, we'll stop now," Naruto said with a nervous chuckle as he shut down the mental link between the group before thinking of something he would have to try later on… he would just have to make sure no one knew he did it.

"Mom, I'm home," came an unfamiliar call as a small boy wearing a striped bucket hat and dark overalls walked through the front door, closing it behind him before removing his sandals.

"Inari! Where were you?" came a rather loud call from Tazuna, prompting Naruto to raid the man's mind to see what he could learn about the boy, quickly discovering that he was the bridge builders grandson though he decided to stop there.

"Welcome back grandpa," the newly dubbed Inari said with a certain amount of happiness present in his voice as he walked over to the old man.

"Inari, say hello to these people, they're ninja who protected grandpa," Tsunami said with a smile, causing the young boy to look at the group with an annoyed glare before turning back to the woman.

"Mom, they're going to die," this statement earned a twitch of annoyance from Sasuke, a look of disbelief from Sakura and a death glare from Naruto.

"Shut up brat, you're too late to tell me I'm going to die so just shut up before I sic bunny on ya!" the blond said with anger clear in his voice, obviously he didn't like being reminded that he was technically deceased… which actually took his mind on a tangent as he wondered if his name would be put on the memorial stone KIA since technically he was.

"You know nothing, there's no way you can beat Gato, he's too strong," the bucket hat boy said with a hint of anger in his tone, causing the blond to search the boys thoughts, sifting through his memories, quickly finding something he found interesting.

A man named Kaiza, a man simply seeing through the boy's memories made him respect as he fought to keep everyone close to him safe. A man with an indomitable spirit despite his complete lack of training and someone the boy would happily say was worth the love he felt Inari had for him.

However it didn't last long when Gato arrived, Kaiza had stood up to the vertically challenged businessman and without the support of the people or any combat skills, he had been publically executed, destroying the villages morale and causing them to submit to the fiends rule.

Almost immediately the corpse of a boy started bristling with unbridled rage, his anger wasn't directed in a single direction, no, he hated Gato for killing a great man like Kaiza and practically enslaving an entire island, however he was also furious that the people of Nami had simply let their hero die in vain. Instead of taking his spirit within themselves and standing up to fight Gato, something he was sure they could do if they had tried, they had simply let their hope die with a single man.

And to think that the boy that looked up to the man the most was the one to disregard his will the most.

"Kakashi-sensei, I'm leaving," the blond said as he got up and headed towards the door, the sheer anger in his tone was something the group had never heard before and Kakashi was certain the boy had gone too far into someone's thoughts to be polite if his current actions were anything to go by.

"Naruto, where do you think you're going? We still haven't finished our discussion from earlier," the question was simple and the man held an authority he rarely did when he made the statement, unfortunately Naruto didn't care right now.

"I don't know but if I stay here I know I'll kill that worthless piece of shit over there," he said pointing towards Inari, allowing everyone to see something they hadn't before, that his eyes had changed from their normal azure blue to a rich crimson that reminded the group of blood.

"Naruto, stop right there, we need to talk and you need to hear what I have to say, do you understand?" Kakashi said, he didn't know why the boy was so angry but he knew that he would have to speak with the entire team about the future of the mission and he couldn't do that if Naruto wasn't there with them.

"Then I'll set up a mental link. I refuse to stay in the same room as that rodent," the blond stated, not giving his sensei enough time to argue before he was out the building with the door slammed shut, causing several cracks to appear surrounding the frame of the entrance.

Almost immediately there was an unholy silence as everyone tried to take in exactly what had happened with the blond and why he had a problem with the little child.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto was beginning to regret leaving the Tazuna residence… then he remembered why he left in the first place and that regret vanished like it was never there.

The reason he wasn't particularly happy right now wasn't the lack of a warm bed or anything else even remotely similar, it was the fact that the sun was still in the sky and despite the clothes Kakashi had lent him, the light was still roasting him, fortunately though, he wasn't catching on fire this time.

Looking towards his shoulder he saw the rabbit that he believed had technically saved his life and made him whatever it is he was right now.

It almost scared him to think that the enemies pet had saved him and if what he saw in Kakashi's memories was true, he would probably have to explain why the rabbit was a corpse… he was not looking forward to seeing the girl he witnessed in its memories reaction to the news.

He actually felt nervous knowing that the man who killed him was still alive and would probably be back to full health in as little as a week.

'_**GAH, FUCK THIS FUCKING SEAL!'**_

"WAH! WHO SAID THAT?!" was the child's only natural response to suddenly hearing something like that.

'_**W-what? You can hear me?'**_

"Uh… yeah, why wouldn't I… now show yourself!" of course the corpse began to feel just a little more nervous when the owner of the voice didn't leave their hiding place.

'_**Wish I could gaki… as for why you wouldn't be able to hear me, it is a function of the seal on your gut to cut out my influence,'**_ the voice said in what Naruto assumed was its normal tone.

He knew he recognised it before, it was the same voice that told him to get out of the sunlight and even told him that blood pills didn't work on him.

Hearing it talking about seals, his gut and taking into account the fact that the voice appeared to be coming from everywhere yet nowhere at the same time his mind quickly came to the only conclusion it could.

'_You're the Ky__ū__bi aren't you?'_ deciding to keep his mouth shut this time he simply thought he answer to the voice earning an amused snort from the being before it gave its answer.

'_**Of course I am, what else is sealed in your gut?'**_ the response caused the child to roll his eyes in exasperation upon hearing the fox's statement, he didn't know why it had suddenly decided to try and speak with him but he wasn't entire sure he liked its attitude.

'_So to what do I owe the pleasure of your presence oh mighty Ky__ū__bi-sama?'_ even in his mind his voice reeked of sarcasm as he probed the beast for its reason to speak with him.

'_**Cut the crap, I'm simply here to offer you assistance in exchange for a job,'**_ immediately the blond was put on guard by the nine tails' statement, it wanted him to do something for it?

'_And what is this job you want me to do?' _the boy thought, he wouldn't turn it down straight away, even if the fox only gave him knowledge it would prove useful in his current situation.

'_**Nothing much, I just want you to finish off the Uchiha clan,"**_immediately the blond corpse narrowed his eyes and thought his answer firmer than he had ever given before.

'_I refuse, my teammate is an Uchiha and you expect me to kill him? You really aren't as smart as you think are you fox?'_ the answer of course, didn't shock the kitsune in the slightest, it had expected his response, though it would have to rely on instinct from now on… oh how it hated its nature right now.

'_**He may be your teammate now but the Uchiha clan has always been a family of traitors, Madara and his brother murdered their best friends in cold blood before Madara murdered his brother for his eyes when he was going blind,'**_ the fox's statement surprised the blond, hearing that something like that had happened wasn't exactly the easiest thing to digest, _**'and then the clan that Madara led to the position of one of the two greatest on the continent betrayed him to side with the Senju during the founding of Konoha, I think you can understand what I'm getting at, the Uchiha clan is a parasite that should be dealt with.'**_

'_Sasuke isn't like that,' _Naruto's thoughts were filled with conviction which in turn earned a snort of amusement from the bijū.

'_**Fine then, how about a compromise, if you can succeed in proving this teammate of yours isn't a pawn of his hate then I will consider your side of the bargain upheld as long as the rest of his family is wiped out, if he proves himself to be nothing more than a hate consumed traitor then you will have to kill him no matter what you feel on the matter, do we have a deal?'**_

'_What exactly would I gain out of this deal? All I know right now is what you want me to do but you haven't said anything about what I'd get out of it,' _the blond thought seriously, his mind starting to wonder about what would be worth accepting the deal in the first place.

"_**Knowledge, more specifically about what you have become,"**_ immediately the child's mind raced at the idea that the bijū knew what was going on with him and could possibly allow him to know everything that was different for him than others, _**"however, I'm not an expert on what you are, I know of some things that occur with your kind however I don't really know much beyond the basics, for example, I don't know how you use your abilities, only what they are and even then there may be some… discrepancies because from what I've heard there are lots of different levels of power within your species."**_

'_So basically you're saying you don't really know that much about what's going on with me?'_ Naruto thought back to the beast earning an exasperated sigh of the being.

'_**I know far more than you do, hell if it wasn't for me you'd be dead and dust right now!'**_ Kyūbi shot back, not particularly happy with how the interaction had played out.

'_I hate to break it to you fox but… I AM DEAD!' _the sheer volume he could reach in his mind was quite surprising, especially for the bijū that took the full brunt of the noise.

'_**Well, technically you're just lacking life, you're not really dead,'**_ the twitch on the boys eyebrow upon hearing the beasts statement would've been obvious to all that had seen him if there had been anyone there to see him in the first place.

'_And what is the difference between lacking life and being dead?'_

'_**Dead men tell no tales,'**_ the fox replied quickly, saying one of the few sayings it had heard in its life.

'_Liar, going by Kakashi-sensei's thoughts on Zabuza dead men tell a lot,' _came the blonds retort to the demons statement.

'_**Their bodies might tell a lot during a post mortem but they themselves don't say anything Blondie,'**_ the twitch that appeared on the child's eyebrow was obvious to anyone that could see it, indicating that he was genuinely pissed off with the beast.

Suddenly a simple thought popped into his head, one that he hadn't considered before due to the lack of time he had been capable of it.

'_Damn… now I see why you want the Uchiha clan dead,'_ the boy stated within his mind, causing the bijū's eyes to widen slightly at the implications of the sentence.

'_**Y-you read my mind!'**_ the smirk that graced the corpses lips under his mask was vicious enough to make even the walking weapon of mass destruction known as Kyūbi shiver, knowing exactly how much leverage it had just lost.

'_Yeah, if I can read other people's minds then why not yours?' _the instant the boy said that the prisoner knew it had lost, the boy could easily find out anything it knew whether it wanted him to know or not.

Naruto himself was slightly surprised by what he discovered within the beasts mind, the reason it didn't seem to possess a lot of wit was simple, it tended to crush first and then forget whatever questions it had, resulting in a lack of social interaction and knowledge, all of which was obtained via spying on its previous vessels interactions.

It also made sense that the beast was made purely of chakra, its entire body being nothing more than a giant chakra construct like a Kage Bunshin, though not as likely to disperse upon being hit. It also meant that the beast technically had no organs and even though it had fake ones, the person that had made it had decided to leave out any form of reproductive organs, making it effectively genderless though it had a rather masculine personality.

However it was what he learned about himself that truly shocked him, the idea that he was a vampire, a being of the night that survived by drinking blood was something that made him nervous. The knowledge he discovered on his own biology was also surprising, since he was no longer producing his own blood and his heart wasn't beating, it meant that although he could survive without it, he still needed it to regenerate from injuries. That was something he didn't really understand, something about it being a liquid with the correct base materials to breakdown into new cells to replace the old ones or something like that, he didn't really understand what the fox knew, just that he needed blood to heal and he was currently all out of blood.

His canines had apparently also undergone an unusual transformation. Not only had they grown longer but they had also hollowed out, acting as syringes to drain blood straight into his bloodstream if the fact they were connected to what appeared to be an enlarged series of blood vessels was correct. It also appeared that his fangs would slightly expand once he had dug his teeth into someone, probably to increase the speed with which he could drain the blood out of his victims.

The new state of his chakra system was also a shock to him, no longer was his chakra flowing like it should with any living being, instead it just lingered there, stagnating as it no longer received the necessary components to form, the only reason his chakra would refill at any point was because of the seal that held Kyūbi siphoning off its chakra and purifying it to mix with his own, though it would also quickly stagnate until he decided to actively use it. The only other way for his chakra to regenerate was by assimilating the small amount that would be contained within the blood of his victims.

Of course all of this would cause him some problems, he didn't know how his chakra would react when used in a technique nor if he would even be capable of using it effectively, only that he was no longer regenerating it as fast as he used to.

It was also surprising that the seal was still intact despite the fact he had been cut in half right at the point it was located, unlike his biology the beast within him didn't seem to have any idea why it hadn't been broken, meaning he would have to talk to the Hokage about it when they returned from their mission.

He was grateful of another piece of the fox's knowledge, the rabbit. As it turned out whenever a vampire drank from a living being it would have one of three fates, if it was a virgin of the opposite gender to him it would become a vampire as well, if it was either the same gender as him or not a virgin, it would become either a familiar or a ghoul like bunny.

It did surprise him that there were two possibilities however the fact that the rabbit had become a ghoul (if he was honest he still thought it was a zombie) instead of a familiar was something that interested him. The idea that becoming a familiar preserved the soul while becoming a ghoul preserved the body was interesting, though he had no idea if he could create familiars or if he was restricted to ghouls.

Either way he might eventually have an army under his command and that could either cause major problems or be a major asset… quite possibly both. Of course there was also the question of how do you hide a literal army of zombies from the public, he hadn't quite figured out a way just yet but the seal on his stomach gave him a basic idea that he would mull over with Kakashi later.

'_Oh yeah, I forgot about that,'_ the corpse thought casually before connecting his mind to the rest of his teams for the time being.

'_DAMMIT NARUTO WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!'_ was the immediate crash of sound that assaulted his mind courtesy of Kakashi.

'_**SHUT THE HELL UP!'**_ the Kyūbi's response to the sudden barrage of noise caused the boys eyebrow to twitch and a sudden thought to jump to the front of his mind… he had connected himself to ALL of his team in one go.

'_What the hell? Who the hell are you?!' _came the immediate response from the pink haired member of the team.

'_**Who the hell am I? WHO THE HELL AM I! I'm the fucking Ky**__**ū**__**bi bitch!'**_ the mental groan from Naruto was obvious to everyone in the team as the blond began to contemplate how different methods of suicide would work now he was dead.

'_Well that's depressing… a dead person contemplating suicide, no wonder you're wondering how it would work,' _Kakashi thought causing everyone connected to the conversation to sweatdrop at the comment.

'_Uh, sorry to interrupt but, why the hell is the Ky__ū__bi talking to us when it was killed by the yondaime?'_ came the obvious question from the pinkette as confusion racked her brain, surprisingly it was Sasuke that answered her.

'_Isn't it obvious? We were lied to, the Yondaime didn't kill the Ky__ū__bi, he sealed it, if I'm right, in Naruto,'_ the combination of the length of the sentence he made and the fact he sounded almost bored caused everyone to question exactly what was wrong with the boy. Obviously he noticed these feelings _'what? Just because I'm quiet doesn't mean I don't think.'_

'_**I'm amazed, from my experience you Uchiha are too filled with hate to make proper conversation… damn traitorous parasites,'**_ the giant mass of chakra said with enough venom in its voice to kill an elephant.

'_What the fuck did you say?!'_

'_**You heard me, why don't you lie in a ditch and die like the worm you are!'**_

'_Why you little!'_

'_BOTH OF YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!'_ the sudden shout from the masked Jōnin came interrupting the argument, _'now if you don't mind I would rather have a productive conversation than listen to a pair of children name calling.'_

'_**What did you call me?!'**_

'_He's right Ky__ū__bi,' _Naruto's mind interrupted, _'looking at your memories it's easy to see that you are a childish pyromaniac with a sledgehammer.'_

'_**I'm not childish! Just under educated,'**_ the beast retorted causing another series of sweatdrops from the group involved in the meeting.

'_You're under educated because you're childish enough to see something interesting and decide to blow it up instead of study it,' _the blond said with a hint of exasperation.

'_**That's because it's more fun to watch things burn,'**_ the sheer joy present in the fox's tone made everyone realise just how much they had overestimated the beings intelligence.

'_Enough, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, I have something to tell you all,'_ Kakashi finally started only to be cut off by the azure eyed genin.

'_Zabuza's alive, I know, I read your mind earlier,'_ he thought rather calmly, causing everyone to let a hint of concern flow through the link, _'I know you're planning on teaching us a chakra control exercise and even know what it involves now, so why don't you guy's focus on that and protecting Tazuna, I'll focus on getting used to my new nature.'_

'_And what is your new nature?' _Sakura finally interjected, honestly she had found the bombshell that Naruto had the Kyūbi sealed within him quite the shock. However she was smart enough to realise that if Naruto was the beast then it wouldn't have been speaking to them full stop.

'_**He's a vampire,'**_ the bijū said before the blond could respond, earning several feelings of disbelief from the rest of the team before they changed to realisation and finally, acceptance, _**'that rabbit was the poor creature he drained dry to turn and heal himself the first time.'**_

'_Is that why he started burning when the mist cleared?' _Kakashi's question was simple and the answer was just as simple.

'_**Yep.'**_

'_So why is the rabbit a zombie?' _Sakura asked, not really seeing why a rabbit that had been killed by a vampire would come back as a walking corpse.

'_**Because when he drinks the blood of something it becomes a 'zombie' as you call them, or if they are a virgin of the opposite gender they'll become a vampire as well,'**_ the demon said rather offhandedly, the fact that the blond already knew meant it had nothing to lose from being loose lipped.

'_So if Naruto was to bite Sakura and she was to bite me we would all become vampires?' _Sasuke asked, his desire for power beginning to flow through the mental link.

'_**And once again the Uchiha thinks of how to seize power before anything else… typical red eyed bastards.'**_

'_Shut up, I don't need an overgrown rodent commenting on my every thought!'_

'_**Rodent! I'm a fox not a fucking rodent you retarded piece of cartilage!'**_

'_Oh shut the hell up already!' _Kakashi had to admit his student and the fox almost sounded like an old married couple from the way they were bickering.

'_Kakashi-sensei, do you think your raikiri would kill me?'_ Naruto thought as he finally decided to sit on a nearby rock.

'_Naruto, it is bad enough I had to send a messenger bird to the Hokage telling him you were dead, I don't need you inanimate as well,' _the sigh of disappointment that came out of the blond was easily noticed by everyone.

'_Fine… anyway, I've been thinking a little bit,'_ the vampiric genin started only to get cut off by a certain pink haired konoichi.

'_You can actually think?' _the tone she used sounded more incredulous than anything else.

'_**You'd be surprised by how much he thinks, he just has a short attention span,'**_ Kyūbi told the girl earning several feelings of surprise from the group.

'_Anyway, before I was interrupted, I was going to suggest a… let's just call it a team plan,'_ that statement immediately got the groups attention, _'you remember how I kept hiding from everyone except Iruka-sensei whenever I did a prank?'_

'_Yes…'_ came the simultaneous groan from the rest of the team, though Kakashi kept his other thoughts of how he had occasionally been in the groups trying to catch him to himself.

'_Well I was thinking that Sasuke is good at fighting, so why not have him be the heavy hitter, Sakura is perfect for a support role and I'm actually quite good at stealth when I want to be,' _the blond started only to be cut off by their sensei.

'_So your idea is to have Sasuke work in the open with Sakura supporting him while you strike from the shadows right?'_

'_Yeah, take right now, you three can easily defend Tazuna while I sneak about dealing a few blows to Gato during the night,'_ the idea had some merit Kakashi decided, if anything Naruto was the stealthiest of them all, himself included, if it wasn't for Iruka being a sensor type he would've never found the blond either. There was only one problem.

'_Naruto… do you plan on feeding off anyone?'_ immediately the feelings of fear his teammates experienced upon hearing their sensei's words flooded the mental link, letting him know that his nature wasn't appreciated.

'_I hate to admit it but if I ever want to heal I'll need to bite someone sooner or later… I think it makes sense to get the first time over with sooner, besides, if I make an army of zombies I might be able to take down Gato before Zabuza recovers,' _the blond finished with a joking tone, though everyone could tell he wasn't exactly jumping with joy at the idea.

'_Alright, I have one more question before this meeting is over,' _the Jōnin finally decided to ask something that had been bothering him for awhile, _'why are you so angry with Inari?'_

Thinking seriously the blond decided to try and push images into his teams head, images of Kaiza, of the brave man that fought to his last breath in an attempt to free the country from Gato's reign of terror, only for everyone to disregard his will and come to heel like domesticated dogs.

'_I see, so you're angry that Inari is essentially spitting on that mans grave by letting Gato win,'_ Kakashi stated upon seeing the images and even more importantly, feeling the blonds feelings towards the images.

'_Yeah… I know I'm being immature but I just can't stand seeing that child when I know about this,'_ Naruto admitted, feeling the sorrow flow from his team at the revelation.

'_Anyway, if that's everything, I want to start 'objective: hit and turn','_ Naruto stated seriously as his senses began to scan the area for anything that would let him find his first victims.

'_Yeah, all I have left to say is good luck and be careful,' _Kakashi stated, earning a warm feeling off the blond as his teammates also gave similar responses before he closed the mental link and stood up.

"Time to start the hunt," and with that said, the blond disappeared into the young night, preparing himself for his first taste of human blood.


	4. Chapter 4

Kusagawa Mikaboshi hated his name. The mere fact that his parents had named him after a god of evil made him feel extremely bitter about it. No matter where he went people kept judging him by his name and in the end, he gave up trying to make an honest living after getting a job under the shipping merchant Gato.

So here he was acting as the supervisor of a group of hired muscle used to keep a firm grip on the nation of Nami no Kuni. Unlike most of Gato's thugs he was actually trusted, mainly because of his gratitude towards the first person to give him a job, of course he was incredibly loyal to his boss and never once took advantage of that trust.

Right now however he was simply being forced to evacuate his bladder in the forest surrounding his groups camp, he would have to remember to ask Gato if he was prepared to buy them some portable toilets later.

Suddenly a rustling in a nearby bush caught his attention, causing him to close his pants and move towards the shrub, cautious of what could be lurking in it, he still had nasty images of one guy under his care doing something similar only to get his… precious part bitten by a poisonous snake, the man's screams of agony still haunted his nightmares… especially from after they cut it off in an attempt to stop the poison spreading.

Pulling out his sword, the man started using it to push the bush open to see what was causing the movement, letting out a breath he didn't even know he had been holding upon seeing a small white rabbit… then it turned around and his eyes widened in shock upon seeing the blood covering its neck which in itself was bent at an unnatural angle, though the most haunting part of the picture was the eyes, the misty white that covered it and showed it was either blind or dead.

Just as he opened his mouth to scream, he found a hand clasped over it as he felt something bite his neck, four extremely sharp fangs effortlessly puncturing his skin before he began to feel light headed.

His mind moved at a thousand miles a second as fear overtook his senses, his legs starting to thrash out as his hands tried to pry the hand keeping his voice from reaching his minions from his mouth with no success despite his desperate struggles.

It took several minutes before the man finally felt the last of his life leave his body, knowing that he would be nothing more than a corpse when whatever was latched onto him was finished.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto almost felt sick as he removed his fangs from his first human victim and lifted 'Bunny' back onto his shoulder. The only thing stopping him from actually feeling sick was knowing of the atrocities his victim had sanctioned, happily allowing his men to murder, rape and pillage anyone that wasn't under Gato's protection.

Knowing that Gato hired thugs not only to enforce his 'law' but let them do as they pleased to those that broke it made the blond feel even more enraged at the monster that ran the country through trade and terror.

He had to admit he was appreciating that he had decided to wait for nightfall before striking, as it stood he was capable of keeping his hood and mask down, meaning he wouldn't have to worry about getting 'sunburnt' if his hood fell down in the middle of a fight… plus he could keep his fangs ready to bite his victims and 'convert' them.

He was also happy that his first human meal appeared to have allowed his skin to completely regenerate, leaving him completely unscathed from his earlier roasting.

Quickly jumping up to a branch Naruto looked down to see his newest corpse starting to stand, the only indication that it was even dead being the bite marks at the side of his neck, the paleness of his skin and the glazing his eyes were gaining.

Deciding to start his plan, Naruto opened a mental link with the corpse and gave it an order, one that it immediately began to follow as it walked back towards the camp in a relatively human looking walk, the true beauty of the newly dead, that they didn't have rotting parts to compensate for, of course 'Bunny' was different because he had a broken neck which screwed with the nervous signals and therefore interfered with its movement.

Calmly watching from his branch with 'Bunny' on his shoulder, Naruto witnessed one of the many bandits in the camp comment on how long the guy had been taking a piss, growing slightly nervous when he received no answer.

The bandits began to grow restless as their boss kept walking towards them in a slightly unnatural manner that despite looking mostly normal, just didn't seem right.

Just as the group prepared their weapons, ready for nearly anything, Mikaboshi sprung forwards and with a loud crunch, used his jaws to break a bandits neck and tear a large chunk of flesh out of him in the process.

Immediately the large group of bandits started to panic as they witnessed one of their own literally eat a piece of another comrade, their panic was only increased by the white rabbit that flew out of the trees and proceeded to tear at another's throat.

Naruto knew that he shouldn't have any problems setting his ghouls on these monsters, from what Mikaboshi's memories told him, most of these men had tortured and raped men, women and children, he knew that these people were not worthy of the life they currently possessed and that his ghouls would take it from them for him.

However, witnessing the victims of his minions rise and start joining in on the wholesale slaughter, he began to feel sick, watching people have chunks of flesh ripped from them under his orders. It didn't help his stomach that most of the thugs died slow deaths, emitting screams of the upmost agony as they lay bleeding out, or even as they were being eaten alive.

Seeing such carnage unleashed under his command made the boy shudder in revulsion, though he knew that he couldn't undo what he had done and that there were still several more camps that he needed to wipe out before Gato learned of this camps destruction.

XXX XXX XXX

"Kakashi-sensei… are you sure it's alright to let Naruto run around attacking Gato on his own?" Sakura asked, a combination of curiosity and concern lacing her voice as she wondered what her blond teammate would do if he got in over his head.

"I wouldn't worry too much, I'm sure if anything goes wrong Naruto can just be dead," Kakashi said calmly, earning several raised eyebrows from the other occupants of the room, fortunately Inari was missing so they didn't have to worry about him annoying them about Gato being invincible… again.

"What do you mean 'be dead'? Don't you care what happens to him?" Tsunami asked with a certain level of concern in her voice, obviously not understanding exactly what the Jōnin meant.

"Well, it's not really appropriate to say he could just 'play dead' like some people do… because unlike them he already is dead," the cycloptic Jōnin stated calmly, causing several looks of realisation to spread on everyone's faces.

"Okay… but why do I get this strange feeling that everything will go to hell later?" the young pinkette asked earning a shrug off the older ninja as he began to wonder how many 'zombies' Naruto would have by the end of the mission, if they were lucky he would have less than fifty, anymore would bring about even more problems when they finally returned to Konoha and they would already have enough trouble simply trying to explain the boys new state of being and (hopefully) small number of zombie slaves.

"Well, we've got an early start tomorrow, we'd better get some rest while we can, so let's just put Naruto out of our minds and go to bed 'kay?" the silver haired ninja stated lazily as he began to wonder if the blond would be getting tired right now… unlike them he didn't have a light to help keep him awake.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto couldn't stop himself from gagging as he looked over the remains of the camp. Despite most of the thugs being turned into ghouls by his original ghouls, there were some that hadn't been turned… namely because there wasn't enough of them left to raise from the dead.

If he had the capacity to throw up at the scene he would've, to think that his first scene of death was not only this extreme but also caused by him. That was the truly disturbing part of the scene, that it had been created on his orders… and that he would see it again soon.

He knew he wasn't cold but he couldn't stop himself from wrapping his arms around himself and shivering, this scene was the physical proof that he wasn't human anymore.

Turning away from the camp, he proceeded to follow the memories he had absorbed from the commander and take his new army to wipe out his next target.

"_**Sssooo gloomy aren't you? Seriously, you'll do a lot better if you just learned to enjoy the carnage,"**_ came the now all too familiar call of the Kyūbi in a voice that made it clear it had thoroughly enjoyed the show.

"_Shut up, I'm not a psychopath like you," _the blue eyed blond responded with anger clear in his tone, hell, out of all the people that he could've listened to for moral support it just had to be the bijū, _"then again… Kakashi-sensei? Are you awake?"_

"_Yeah… we all are," _came a subdued tone from the Jōnin's mind as the blond proceeded to connect the entire team telepathically, _"need a shoulder to lean on after your first kill?"_

"_I wouldn't exactly call it that simple," _the blond said with a shudder as he remembered the scene he had created.

"_**Hahaha! Damn right! That was so bloody I wish I could roll in it!"**_

"_Shut up rabbit," _came a demand from Sasuke that made everyone connected giggle a little.

"_**I'M NOT A FUCKING RABBIT YOU RETARDED UCHIHA!"**_ the red eyed bijū shouted in outrage at the raven haired avenger.

"_Whatever bunny," _the fox's anger could be felt clearly through the mental link the group shared and only made the humans laugh harder at the chakra constructs expense, _"so, what happened? You can show us can't you?"_

"_Wait! I don't know if I can handle that sort of image yet!" _Sakura made her concerns clear over the link only to receive an unconcerned reply from her sensei.

"_Given that Naruto is your teammate, you will have to get used to his abilities sooner or later so it is better to get it out of the way now so it doesn't get to you when you see it first hand," _Sakura couldn't fault his logic and made it clear that the blond should inflict his memories on her as well.

The young blond could easily feel the horror that filled Sakura's mind at the images she was receiving, however he was surprised to feel very little from his other two teammates… as if they had seen worse.

"_I can definitely see why you are so shook up over this, it is a truly horrible situation for someone unused to death to see themselves creating," _the one eyed Jōnin stated calmly.

"_I've seen worse," _Sasuke admitted, shocking both the other genin before he pushed the memories of his clans massacre into their minds, _"I know it is a lot cleaner but the real difference is the person committing the deed."_

"_You mean the fact that Naruto feels guilty about what he did?" _the pink haired genin decided to ask, earning a simple yes from the dark eyed boy.

"_Itachi killed our entire family for no reason and felt nothing… Naruto ordered the death of those thugs to save a country and feels nothing but guilt, I think it's safe to say that he isn't a real monster," _Naruto had to admit, hearing those words from the one person he always aimed towards made him feel better than anything else ever had.

The entire team immediately felt the boys mood rise, though only Kakashi really understood why, the others just put it down to the words themselves.

"_Thanks guys… I feel much better now,"_ the whiskered vampire told them with gratitude clear in his mental tone.

"_We know, we can feel how you're feeling,"_ Sakura admitted to the blond who simply smiled at the knowledge that despite everything, his teammates truly did care for him.

"_Anyway, I'll see you guys sooner or later," _the blond said, earning a trio of farewells in response to him before he closed two of the mental links, _"hey Kakashi-sensei."_

"_Naruto, I thought everything had been sorted out?" _the Jōnin thought back to the blond.

"_Yeah, I was just wondering where Tsunami-san is right now,"_ Naruto told the older man.

"_She's bathing right now, why?"_

XXX XXX XXX

Sasuke and Sakura couldn't stop confusion from appearing on their faces as they watched their sensei stare off into the distance while a small red stain began to appear where the tip of his nose was hidden by his mask.

"Um… Kakashi-sensei? Is something wrong?" Sakura asked the silver haired man.

"No, everything is just perfect," the older ninja said in a tone that crept the young girl out while Sasuke simply figured out exactly what was going on.

"Hey Sakura, can you please get me a glass of water?" the raven haired Uchiha asked the girl who immediately shot out of the chair she was in and headed to the kitchen, "Kakashi-sensei… can you ask Naruto to let me watch too?"

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto had to admit, it was annoying having to travel at the same speed as his ghouls, a trip that should've taken no longer than twenty minutes had taken him nearly four hours.

Though he did feel a lot better, especially after finding out that Tsunami still 'played' with herself with thoughts of Kaiza while bathing… that had been a really good show in his opinion, both Sasuke and Kakashi agreed with him as well.

It did annoy him though that his lack of flowing blood made a certain appendage he possessed completely useless.

Shaking his head clear of those thoughts, he took to the trees as he began to near the second camp that night. Judging by the speed he was able to move at with the ghouls this would be the last camp he could destroy before the night was up, though he would be able to get most of the way to the third one before the sun rose for the day.

If only he didn't have to slow down for the ghouls like this… the blond proceeded to face palm at that thought, why the hell did he need the ghouls to attack a camp anyway? He could easily just make more when he got there.

Though he would still have to supervise them just in case there were innocents among the camps, he had learned through Mikaboshi's memories that the camps tended to keep women of all ages captive to keep the 'men' amused. It made him sick, the thought that these people would force women to have sex with them… some even forcing girls as young as ten to perform such acts.

He may peek on women whenever he got the chance but he would never force them to 'pleasure' him against their will… if they were willing then he wouldn't say no (well as long as he could fit his arms around them and they weren't sagging that is) but that was a completely different situation.

Moving closer to the camp under the cover of the branches he focused on the now nearly pitch black area, he had been really quite surprised when he discovered that his eyesight was now better in the dark than the light, though it simply made things so much easier for him to act in the shadows.

Looking around the camp, he located a mere three torch wielding sentries that looked like they were about to fall asleep at any second, seventeen large tents and most importantly, two posts in the middle of the camp with nine women chained to them.

Naruto immediately grit his teeth while his eyes turned red in anger as he saw a fourth thug currently 'using' a young woman that looked to be between the age of eighteen and twenty five. It took all of his self control to stop himself from charging in to kill the man that was treating a woman like some kind of sex toy, realising that if he did so he would simply put all of the captives at risk.

Halting his breathing, the now red eyed vampire proceeded to silently drop from the branch he was perching on before moving like a shadow towards one of the sentries, effortlessly sneaking behind the half awake thug and with a single fluid motion, clamped his hand around the man's mouth and digging his teeth into his victims neck.

Less than a minute passed in silence as he assimilated the guards memories, nearly being driven into a hatred driven rampage at the memories of this creature he was currently drinking the blood of. To think out of everyone possible he had come across one of the three thugs that used children for adult activities.

Immediately deciding that he didn't want to risk anymore memories like that, he pulled out a pair of kunai and with a single well aimed toss, eliminated the other two sentries while leaving the one currently raping a woman alive to face a far worse fate.

Once again moving like a shadow, the sharp fanged boy flowed behind the last of the conscious thugs before hitting him on the back of the neck, instantly knocking the man unconscious and pulling him away from his victim.

Despite removing the man, the blond couldn't stop himself from recoiling at the sight that lay before him… bunny had more life in its eyes than this young woman that was still alive, seeing such a thing made him feel sick to the core, these men pushed innocent civilians to such a state and had no guilt over their actions… he wanted to tear every last one of them limb from limb but first…

"Keh…" the blond barely heard from the woman he was looking at, causing him to read the girls mind, _"kill… me… please… someone… anyone… kill… me…"_

Hearing her thought s the young genin felt his anger rise even higher as he effortlessly shattered the manacles holding her in place with his bare hands, the noise being enough to wake the other captives that were sleeping uncomfortably.

"Ssh!" the red eyed genin immediately indicated for them to remain silent as they looked at him with fear in their eyes, "I'm going to free you all, anyone strong enough, please carry this woman with you."

"We won't be able to get past the sentries," a slightly older woman said with tears coming from her eyes as she thought about what would happen if they were caught trying to escape.

"There aren't any, I've already killed all but that guy," Naruto told them darkly while pointing towards the man currently lying unconscious behind him.

"W-why haven't you killed him?" a young girl, probably no older than he himself asked, once again fear was the dominant emotion in the captives tone.

"He deserves a fate worse than death," the vampiric genin muttered as he placed his hands around the manacles of the girl he had just answered and with no effort broke the metal like a piece of straw, shocking all the women watching.

It took mere minutes for him to finish freeing the rest of the captives who quickly left the camp in the opposite direction to where he came from.

"Eat all these bastards alive," and with that, hell was unleashed upon the camp.

XXX XXX XXX

"_**(sniff) little Naru-chan is making me so proud,"**_ Kyūbi said in a mocking manner as the blond looked upon the scene.

"_Shut up Kyūbi, or I swear I will tear that pathetic mind of yours to shreds," _the tone the blond took with the beast made it clear that he wasn't joking, especially given the fact that he had literally torn a thugs mind to shreds in anger during the massacre.

It was strange, before the blond had felt guilty about doing this but this time it was different, not only had he ordered the destruction of this camp but he himself had joined in on the carnage and the difference was clear to him. Mikaboshi refused to watch his men commit such acts but still knew they occurred, however now he had not only seen the act with his own eyes, he had also seen what could happen to the victim first hand and that knowledge alone made the entire slaughter something he didn't want to look away from.

Finally turning away from the scene, he started running towards his next destination… the third camp he would destroy while his ghouls waited in the second… well except for his first ghoul, bunny would of course prove itself useful once again.


	5. Chapter 5

Kakashi had to admit, he wasn't sure what to think of today. The night had passed and he had not received any more updates from his blond student turned vampire. That could mean any number of things, for one the boy could've ended up getting in over his head (unlikely but possible since Gatō had at least two nuke-nin under his command) or he could have simply decided against giving an update due to not knowing if the silver haired shinobi was awake or not.

There was also the third possibility but he really didn't want to go there. Still, for now his focus was simply in making sure that his other two genin were trained up and Tazuna was being guarded.

Guarding Tazuna wouldn't prove that difficult given the fact he was up a running, plus the chances were that Gatō would be more busy trying to find out who wiped out one of his camps, meaning he would probably be more concerned with sending his men to find Naruto than Tazuna, Sasuke or Sakura.

Still, that didn't change the fact that he had to start teaching his non-vampiric genin how to properly control their chakra and what better way than teaching them how to climb trees?

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto sat calmly against a tree, it's canopy blocking out the hazardous sun and further enhancing the protection the clothes Kakashi-sensei had given him against it.

"_**So all that is left are the ninja and the mercs guarding Gatō himself huh?"**_ came the slightly giddy words of the giant chakra construct that was sealed within his corpse.

"_Yeah, though I need a little rest right now," _the blue eyed blood sucker thought back as his mind focused on the fate of the mercenaries that worked for Gatō. Honestly despite knowing how cruel he had been to them, he couldn't bring himself to care.

He was certain it was courtesy of the memories he had assimilated from some of them that made it possible for him to demonize the men, actually being capable of remembering their deeds and the emotions associated with the acts made it easy for him to think of them as less than human.

However that didn't change the fact that there was a mental strain from the acts and he needed rest, especially given how he had discovered the ability to manipulate minds, implanting false images, making their minds ignore certain presences and above all, the ability to completely shatter the mind of his victims.

He had found that the stronger the will of his victim the harder it was to manipulate their mind (he had also found that the fox inside him was surprisingly weak willed, probably why he was so vulnerable to the sharingan). Of course the mental battle that existed was something that could tire him out especially if his enemy had a strong will.

Silence reigned in the clearing, at least until the blond felt a mind coming his direction, delving slightly into the mind he was shocked to discover that it was the hunter nin that he had discovered had saved Zabuza. Of course looking a little deeper into the persons mind he found himself growing depressed at the thought of fighting someone like that.

He had nothing against completely decimating the bandits that worked for Gatō, they were a bunch of dark souled monstrosities as it was, however this ninja was nothing like that. He could see how similar they were to each other and how the hunter nin didn't seem to agree with what Gatō was doing to the country but was only working for him out of duty to Zabuza who in turn, only worked for Gatō out of desperation.

Despite these thoughts, he remained focused on the fake hunter nin that was currently dressed in a pink dress that went down to _his _feet, with _his_ long raven coloured hair stretching down to _his _back… honestly Naruto could not believe that this person with the lithe frame, slender face and dressed in pink was a boy but he knew from the boys memories that that was in fact the case.

"_**Wait? That's a boy? Are you fucking kidding me?! I've seen girls that look less girly than that guy!"**_ Kyūbi shouted from his place in his cage, earning a small twitch off the blond vampire.

"_You think I feel any different? I hate to admit it but this guy is prettier than Sakura-chan," _Naruto admitted in his head as the boy walked over with surface thoughts contemplating killing him.

"_**So dying has affected your sexuality huh boy?" **_the red eyed beast accused from behind the bars holding it at bay.

"_No it hasn't, that guy's just a trap,"_ the spiky haired youth thought calmly before feeling the hunter nins mind settle on waking him up instead of killing him.

"There is no need to do that," the whiskered vampire stated calmly as the feminine boys hand made towards him, earning a recoil from the docile ninja.

"Sorry, I thought you were asleep," the boy said with smile that didn't quite reach his mind.

"I can tell," the blue eyed genin deadpanned, earning a small chuckle off the hazel eyed individual.

"So what were you doing sleeping out here? You could catch a cold," the feminine boy asked with a warm smile that Naruto probably would've blushed at seeing if he didn't know the person he was facing was his own gender (and he had blood flowing through his veins to let him blush).

"I won't catch a cold," the currently cloaked youth stated calmly, earning a raised eyebrow off the stranger.

"And what makes you so certain of that?" the dark haired boy queried with a smile only to suddenly jump away and pull out a senbon as a blood covered white rabbit launched itself from one of the branches to the area the fake hunter ninja had been kneeling only moments earlier.

"Damn… I really wanted to get you with that one fake hunter-san," the now red eyed genin said with a calm voice as he rose from his seat and looked at his target.

Immediately the pacifist ninja froze in shock, he couldn't believe that this person he was facing knew who he was, sure if he had been conscious then there was the small possibility that he could identify him but he had spent most of the fight against Zabuza unconscious or on fire so he shouldn't have known enough to identify him.

"How did you know?" he asked nervously, honestly all he knew about his enemy was that they had enough power to overwhelm Zabuza, though exactly how he managed that was unknown.

"I have my ways Haku of the Yuki clan," the currently masked vampire stated calmly, causing his foes eyes to widen in shock once again, "now, go bunny and deal with your former owner."

"His name's Shiro," the young boy said with a twitching eye upon seeing the fate of his pet.

"It's Bunny," Naruto stated with his own twitch.

"Shiro."

"Bunny."

"Shiro."

"Bunny."

"Shiro."

"Bunny," by that point the rabbit ghoul had successfully reached its former owner and proceeded to try and bite him, however the act failed quite miserably as the senbon using hunter nin jumped back.

That was when he found a fist colliding with his chest, at least that was what it looked like, the power behind it was far greater than even Zabuza's and that was saying something.

The result of the blow knocked the slightly older boy into a tree, cracking the bark and creating a large amount of internal bleeding, forcing him to bite back a scream of pain as he started going through one handed seals.

He never got to finish as a firm grip grabbed his hands and without a seconds hesitation, crushed the offending appendages.

"Understand this Haku-san, the only reason you're still alive right now is because you have something that could benefit my village and I intend on doing everything I can to help my home," and with that statement said, Naruto gave the boy a head-butt, knocking the mortal out of consciousness.

Naruto knew that if he was still alive he would be forcing his breathing and heartbeat to calm down after making such a statement however without either of them there, he instead decided to try something that he hadn't done since dying.

Placing his hands in a cross-shaped seal, he attempted to channel his chakra, smiling slightly upon feeling the familiar energy starting to flow again before he let out a yell of "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" and found a single copy of himself standing next to him.

Without a single word or thought being uttered the bunshin got straight to its job, picking up the unconscious boy and making its way back towards Tazuna's residence where it would hand over the prisoner to his sensei who would be waiting for him by then.

"_Kakashi-sensei,"_ he thought while connecting himself with his team leader.

"_Naruto, are you alright?"_ the silver haired Jōnin asked with a hint of concern passing over the psychic link.

"_Yeah… I'm nearly finished my mission, all that's left is Zabuza and the people guarding Gatō himself,"_ the spiky hared youth stated calmly, earning a mental nod off his teacher.

"_I see, what about the fake hunter nin?"_ the one eyed ninja asked, earning a hint of guilt from the psychic link.

"_I've captured him,"_ the blue eyed vampire stated earning a feeling of confusion from his sensei.

"_Why did you capture him and why do you feel so guilty?"_ the sharingan warrior asked as kindly as he could manage.

"_Because they're not a bad person but they're also the last of the Yuki-clan,"_ instantly Kakashi understood the feelings of his shortest student, capturing a bloodline holder is something that was taught at the academy, that kekkei genkai were a powerful weapon for any shinobi village to have and that obtaining new ones could increase the strength of their home once they managed to make the clan large and loyal enough to give them a boost in strength.

"_I see…" _the silence that reigned after that was deafening as the experienced Jōnin understood why his student felt guilty, after all it was explained to all the students at the shinobi academy that those with kekkei genkai would be forced to breed for the sake of the village, _"so what's your plan now?"_

"_I'm going to get a bit of rest, I've been up all night so I'm just going to try and get myself back up to full strength before going after Zabuza and then… I'll deal with Gatō,"_ the coldness in Naruto's tone was not missed by the Jōnin instructor.

._"Naruto, are you alright?" _the older of the two asked with his concern passing clearly through the link.

"_Kakashi-sensei… I've absorbed the memories of several bandits, they were… disgusting vermin, taking pleasure in the suffering of others… one of them even…" _Naruto couldn't bring himself from saying it however his disgust as well of the memory was passed onto his sensei who immediately returned the feeling towards the person he was thinking of.

"_I see… it is unfortunate you absorbed memories like that,"_ the one eyed Jōnin stated clearly, earning a scowl from Naruto.

"_At least now I know one thing," _sensing the apprehension coming from his sensei, the young boy made a simple statement that made cold shivers run down the cycloptic Jōnin's spine, _"there are some people that deserve to suffer."_

"_**Hehe, it looks like the kid is going to get even more fun,"**_ the giant fox sealed in Naruto's gut stated with a viscous grin etched on its face.

"_You're one of the ones that I'm thinking of making suffer," _the spiky haired boy stated calmly, earning an indignant scoff off the bijū.

"_**And what've I done to deserve that huh?"**_ the kitsune asked the vampiric genin.

"_Annoy me,"_ instantly he knew that his sensei had a sweatdrop at his statement.

"_**Awe… looks like little Naru-chan is growing up to become a beautiful sadist,"**_ the red eyed fox said in a mocking tone, earning a twitch of his hosts eye.

"_That's it, screw you, I'm going to get some sleep,"_ and with that, the other two participants in the conversation found themselves shut out of the blonds thoughts.

XXX XXX XXX

It was official, Gatō was pissed off. He had sent several messengers to the three camps he had set up within Nami no kuni and not one of them had returned. It was really pissing him off that they hadn't come back when they were supposed to be fast at running, that is the whole reason he hired them in the first place.

By all rights, they should've been back over two hours ago and yet they were nowhere to be seen.

It was for this reason that he decided it was time to see his hired muscle himself, well at least the one he wasn't afraid of right now, a single demon that was bedridden would be no danger to a man of his influence.

"Zōri, Waraji! It's time to pay the little demon a visit!" the short shipping magnate shouted, causing his two bodyguards, a pair of ronin, one with silver hair, a black cap, a grey jacket and a pair of linear tattoos running from his eyes, while the other had an eyepatch, no shirt, dark hair and a plant like tattoo wrapping around his arm.

"Alright boss," the light haired one said with a calm grin before turning to his partner, "and remember Waraji, no killing the ninja."

"Shut up Zōri, I don't care for weak pricks that can't even stand," the darker haired one said before the pair were silenced by their boss.

"Both of you shut up, your job is to looking intimidating and kill those I tell you to, so shut up and do as I say," the short business man stated angrily, earning nods of acknowledgement from the two swordsmen.

It was unfortunate that they had to walk at Gatō's pace because doing so meant the trip took far longer than it normally would've, resulting in the trip taking nearly three hours courtesy of the shipping magnates short strides… at least it would've if they had made it the whole way.

"Well would you look at that, the pathetic bastard has left his fortress," came a cold call from behind the group, causing them to turn and face their opponent, only to laugh upon seeing someone only slightly taller than the shipping magnate.

They chose to ignore the fact the person was dressed in a cloak and was wearing a Konoha hitae-ate, neither fact mattered to them, after all what danger was a single short ninja to two ronin that were thrown out of the daimyo's service due to being too violent?

"Kill him," the short man wearing glasses ordered his bodyguards who quickly charged at the blond genin.

Naruto found himself completely unconcerned with his opponents movements, honestly he had faced faster and more agile opponents back in the academy and now, he had the strength and speed to overcome people like this with minimal effort.

Seeing the two swordsmen drawing their blades to slice him apart with an Iaijutsu on each side, he effortlessly caught both blades with his bare hands, any fear he may have possessed extinguished by the knowledge that he had caught Zabuza's blade with minimal effort when he could barely see it.

Shock was the only emotion that existed within the other occupants of the area as the spiky haired youth simply jerked his wrists and sent the two ronin flying courtesy of keeping their grips on their blades.

It was upon seeing this that Gatō felt unbridled fear, here he was in the middle of nowhere with just his two bodyguards that had been stopped effortlessly by this strange enemy. So it was with no shame coursing through his veins that the businessman proceeded to turn his back on the others and start running like his life depended on it.

That is until he felt a hand grasp his shoulder and with minimal effort, snap his collar bone with nothing more than pressure.

"I would ask you if you had any last words but you don't deserve them," Naruto stated calmly as he tracked the bodyguards progress towards him before simply placing his hand on the shipping magnates neck and with minimal effort, snap it like a stick of Pocky.

And once again he moved his hands to catch the swords coming his way, however instead of throwing their owners like last time, the whiskered genin simply snapped the blades, shocking the pair of ronin just long enough to find the tips of their swords thrust into their necks by the darkly dressed genin.

"You two don't deserve any last words either," the blue eyed vampire stated coldly before he used one of the dying ronin's swords to remove Gatō's head before he proceeded to continue on his way towards Zabuza's hideout with the singular goal of wiping out every last enemy on his mission.

XXX XXX XXX

Zabuza was worried, Haku should've been back long ago with plants to help create a healing balm, however he was nowhere to be seen. Given the fact that the bridge builder had arrived with a team of ninja and he had been unable to neutralise Hatake because of the damage he suffered from that immortal genin, he knew the worst possible scenario was playing out, Haku had been caught.

He knew that scenario was the worst possible, no matter which village you went to, kekkei genkai were always treated in one of two ways, either disdain (and that only happened in Kiri) or adoration. He knew that even the supposedly clean Konohagakure no Sato had its fair share of dirty secrets and that Haku would be used as a breeding factory whether he liked it or not.

The fact that he didn't trust Gatō or his men didn't make matters any easier, especially now that he had no one to guard him.

"It's funny, I never thought you cared about your accomplice so much," came a voice that instantly shocked the former Kiri nin.

"_What the? I can't even hear his breathing or heartbeat!"_ the swordsman thought to himself as he lay on his bed with his muscles refusing to move an inch courtesy of the temporary death state he was placed under by his accomplice.

"That's because I don't have a heart beat and I only breath when I talk," Naruto stated from his position at the foot of the bed.

"_The fuck's going on? Can he read my mind like Hatake?" _the owner of Kubikiribōchō thought to himself only to receive an answer as soon as he finished.

"No, Kakashi-sensei can only place you under a genjutsu that makes your thoughts predictable, I actually can read your mind," the vampire stated calmly.

"So Zabuza, please say your last words, I want to hear them come from your mouth instead of festering in the front of your mind," Naruto demanded from the legendary swordsman.

"Go fuck yourself," the mist ninja stated, earning a frown of disappointment from the blue eyed genin.

"I was hoping you would ask for Haku to be kept safe but if that's the case then I won't bother trying to help him," Naruto stated before pulling his face mask down and in an instant, sunk his fangs into the bedridden swordsman.

Naruto once again felt the rush of memories entering his mind, the knowledge of how to train in the arts that Zabuza employed, the knowledge of why Zabuza tried to overthrow the Mizukage and most importantly as far as the blond was concerned, the regret for all the harm he had caused because of the Mizukage and the rebellion.

It didn't take long for the blond to finish draining the legendary ninja of his blood before lifting the corpse to its feet.

"Alright, it's time to collect the rest of my ghouls and return to Kakashi-sensei," Naruto muttered to himself before walking out of the room, the corpse of Zabuza following him.

XXX XXX XXX

Kakashi really didn't know what to think right now, to think he had to place an anti-suicide seal on the prisoner in order to stop them from offing himself, not that he blamed the boy, it was well known among ninja that prisoners with kekkei genkai were not treated well… at all.

Honestly the best future Haku had would be being locked in a room with three square meals a day while being forced to impregnate several women before having his head split open by one of the Yamanaka's and being executed, well that is unless he was bought by a kind Konoha civilian as a slave but that pretty much never happened.

Kakashi would not deny that most of the civilians that bought slaves were anything but nice people and the treatment the enslaved tended to undergo was some of the worst that could be imagined, however it was Hi no Kuni law that allowed such treatment, since the daimyo officially acknowledges slaves as property instead of people, any cruelty that occurred to the poor souls was perfectly legal.

And the Hokage had no say in it.

Honestly if it wasn't for the necessity of strengthening the village Kakashi would've killed the poor boy already but even Naruto acknowledged that the village comes first when it came down to things like that.

The one good thing however came from the reactions of the others that stayed under the same roof when they found out that Haku was a boy, it was especially funny given the fact that Sakura seemed exceptionally depressed at the knowledge that there was a boy that made a better girl than she did.

Of course he didn't let Tsunami or Tazuna know the reason behind keeping the fake hunter ninja alive and imprisoned, such a thing would probably disgust the duo especially if they knew that it was common practice among shinobi villages.

He was interrupted from his musings by a knock on the front door that made him look at it suspiciously.

"_Kakashi-sensei, it's me, I have a little problem I've brought for you to help me solve,"_ appeared within the heads of everyone in the house including the Hyōton user who immediately stiffened at the psychic message.

Letting out a sigh, the silver haired Jōnin walked over to the door and without hesitation opened it only to say a single sentence upon seeing the problem Naruto had.

"Oh shit."

XXX XXX XXX

It took several hours for Kakashi to assist Naruto in doing something to keep his ghouls out of public view and easily accessible with what was essentially a combination of a storage and summoning scroll, allowing him to store all the ghouls in a single pocket dimension with the potential of being summoned specifically.

Kakashi also had to admit that Zombie Zabuza was actually a pretty intimidating sight, especially with the sword that he still dragged around everywhere… even if Naruto offered it to his sensei stating 'it would be cooler in your hands'.

However the truly great part had nothing to do with the hundred strong zombie army Naruto had managed to collect, instead it was the head of a certain businessman that truly mattered.

Naruto couldn't stop himself from grinning a cruel smile upon seeing the sheer shock and disgust on Inari's face when he showed the head of the billionaire to the family, he was far less entertained by the reaction of his pink haired teammate and quickly put the severed head back under his cloak before she ended up vomiting.

However that didn't change the fact that displaying the head in the middle of the closest town completely changed the atmosphere of Nami and even more importantly, resulted in far more civilians coming to work on the bridge.

So it was with minimal effort that they proceeded to finish their mission, without Gato, Zabuza or his men, Nami no longer really needed them, however that didn't change the fact that they were hired to protect him until the bridge was completed.

Because of this the team simply decided to practice the tree climbing exercise with Sakura getting it down in a matter of minutes while Sasuke struggled and Naruto… well he rotted the tree he tried to practice on, apparently the stagnant nature of his chakra had resulted in him essentially obtaining what Kakashi-sensei decided to call 'fukyuuton(1)'.

Of course the simple fact that his chakra needed to undergo nature transformation in order to get rid of that meant any jutsu powered by raw chakra would end up possessing the corrosive property of his regular chakra, even the Kage bunshin released a cloud of corrosive chakra upon being dispersed.

However it soon came time to leave the country and Naruto honestly couldn't be happier, throughout his entire stay within the country he had been reminded of the memories he had absorbed, it wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't all disgusting and brutal.

He wanted nothing more right now than to leave the country and the people behind so he was quickly filling with relief upon the completion of the bridge and the possibility of going home.

On top of that, it didn't feel too bad to be recognised as a hero.

"Thanks to you, we've completed the bridge but… this is super sad," the old bridge builder said as the group of three ninja, one prisoner, one vampire and one undead rabbit stood at the end of the bridge ready to leave at last.

"Come on, this place is filled with bad memories for me," the cloaked blond stated as he turned around to leave with the rest.

"W-wait!" a young call sounded through the crowd that soon parted to reveal a young girl that was panting while carrying a small box in her hand, "please wait!"

Turning around the blond couldn't stop his eyes from widening in shock upon seeing the young girl he had freed from the second bandit camp.

"Sorry but I have some memories I'd rather forget about this place," Naruto stated calmly before once again turning around.

"P-please… w-we spent a-a-all week making you this," the young girl said as tears threatened to pour from her eyes as Naruto tried to get the memories of one of the bandits out of his head.

Feeling a hand grip his shoulder he looked to his side to see Kakashi looking at him.

"_Take it, they want to give you something to thank you for saving their country, so accept it," _the one eyed Jōnin thought, knowing that Naruto would listen to his thoughts.

"_She was in one of the camps I destroyed, she was… she was raped by a man I drank the blood of," _immediately the disgust that appeared in his sensei spread out to him.

"_Then it is even more important that you accept the gift," _the silver haired man informed the blond, earning a small nod of acceptance from Naruto before the blond turned around.

Walking towards the girl, Naruto almost trembled at the memories that flooded his mind of this sweet innocent girl being defiled by one of the monsters he had killed, the mere thought of such a thing was waking him feel sick with the only thing stopping him from throwing up being his inability to.

Reaching his gloved hand out to accept the small box, he opened it with a sense of anticipation, only for his eyes to widen at the contents.

In it was a bright silver chain necklace with a pendant that looked like a pair of swords crossed behind a round shield that was decorated with an engraving of a wave and the kanji for hero.

If Naruto could release tears in his undead state, he was certain he would've. The gift he had just received would be a constant reminder for him of what happened in Nami, however upon looking at it he was able to focus not on the memories he had absorbed but the people he had saved.

"It's beautiful," he said quietly, though loud enough to be heard before he unclasped the chain and without taking down his hood or mask, he proceeded to place it on his neck where it hung proudly.

Upon fixing the necklace around his neck, the young vampire proceed to lower his mask quickly and give the young girl a quick kiss to her forehead, earning a minor flinch and a small blush, "thank you."

"I-i-it's not a problem, y-you saved u-us after all," the young girl said nervously after the hero of wave put his mask back up.

"I promise, I'll come and see you all again someday," the now significantly happier shinobi said before turned around, "so it's time to return home."

"Indeed it is Naruto, indeed it is," Kakashi stated calmly as the group proceeded to leave the country with a single prisoner in tow.

XXX XXX XXX

(1) Rot Release


	6. Chapter 6

The trip back to Konoha was far easier than team seven had anticipated, well at least after knocking out their prisoner and having Naruto carry him (the wonders of having nearly limitless strength and stamina), so in the end it only took a couple of days to reach the gates of Konoha instead of the couple of weeks it took to get there at a civilian pace.

Walking up to the front gate, Kakashi didn't even bother to look up from his book before making his statement, "team seven returning from a successful C-rank mission to Nami No Kuni with an applicant for shinobi code thirty seven point two."

Immediately the two Chūnin stiffened slightly at the statement given by the silver haired Jōnin before they proceeded to do something they rarely ever had to do, activate a seal that called the ANBU to the front gate.

It took mere seconds for the group of masked assassins to arrive at the scene and after a short exchange detailing the reason for being called, the team took the still unconscious prisoner and vanished in several swirls of leaves.

Seeing that happen made the young blond feel sick at the thought that he was the one to subject the Hyōton user to the future that would be inflicted upon him, however he shook his head clear of those thoughts, he was a ninja, it was his duty to put his morals to the side and do whatever was necessary to ensure the survival of Konoha.

The trip through the village was unusual for the now vampiric blond as he noted that no one was staring at him the way they usually did, making him allow the surface thoughts of the general populace to reach him.

He suddenly discovered that opening himself to everyone nearby was a rather… unpleasant as he was assaulted by countless different thoughts jumbling together into an incoherent mess, though he managed to pick up little segments of the noise and it became quite obvious to him that the only reason people weren't glaring at him was because they didn't recognise him with his hood up and his mouth masked.

That thought made him frown. The mere fact that their minds simply registered him as an eyesore in orange was something he didn't like one bit. He wanted to be looked upon with awe and respect, not annoyance and disapproval.

"Naruto? Are you alright?"came a familiar voice from beside him, making him look to see Sakura looking at him with concern. That immediately managed to make him feel significantly better as his lips began to raise into a grateful smile, not that she could see it but it was there none the less.

"Yeah, I just made a bit of a mistake is all," he said with gratitude clear in his tone as the pink haired Konoichi continued to look at him with concern written on her face.

"Let me guess, you tried to listen to too many thoughts at once," the one eyed Jōnin stated with an eye smile, earning a nervous chuckle off the young vampire.

"Yeah, it hurt my head and I didn't really learn anything new from it either," the blond admitted while looking away from his sensei, he didn't know if the silver haired Jōnin would approve of listening into the thoughts of civilians or not.

"Hm…" everyone turned to look at the raven haired Uchiha as he made a contemplative noise before saying something that made the rest of team seven sweatdrop, "I wonder what everyone would think if they heard the rabbit talk?"

_**"FUCK YOU MONKEY! I'M NOT A RABBIT!"**_ Naruto almost cringed at the yell that permeated his mind before informing the fox of one simple fact.

_"Could you keep it down in there, I'm not linked to them at the moment,"_ almost immediately he heard grumbling from within the recesses of his mind, "the moron says 'fuck you monkey'."

"Monkey?" the dark eyed genin said with a hint of confusion in his tone.

_**"Monkey see, monkey do, so he'll always be a number two,"**_ Naruto was instantly grateful that he had decided to connect the group again and wouldn't have to act as a middle man for the argument between the raven haired avenger and the chakra construct of mass destruction.

_"Oh really, and if that's the case why were you always being controlled by my clan huh?" _immediately the group could feel the anger coming off the beast upon being reminded of that fact.

_"Obviously he's even lower than a number two," _now Naruto was certain he was going to end up with a headache since there was no way the furball would take being insulted like that quietly.

_**"Shut… up… I will not be talked down on by mere humans!,"**_ the bijū growled out upon being reminded of one of his most well known weaknesses.

_"Yeah, sure, anyway, I think it'll be a good idea to put this conversation on hold while we talk with Hokage-sama,"_ the cycloptic Jōnin said, _"and Naruto… could you please enter the room first?"_

_"Huh? Why Kakashi-sensei?" _Naruto's question caused everyone to feel the nervousness coming from the most experienced of the group.

_"Because I may have… sent Hokage-sama a status report that included the fact you are clinically dead," _almost instantly the three genin looked at the man as if he was insane, earning a shrug off the copy-nin, _"well, to be fair he'll have had time to sit down and think about it instead of simply killing me where I stand for letting you die."_

_"You're an idiot, ero-sensei," _the whiskered blond stated bluntly within his mind, earning agreements from the other genin in the process.

_"So will you go first or not?" _the masked Jōnin asked him with a hint of pleading in his tone.

_"Fine, I'll go first ero-baka,"_ the hooded youth finally acknowledged and without a hint of hesitation he did what he normally did when it came down to the Hokage's office, storm in like he owned the place… that is until he was frozen by an intense feeling of death being directed at him.

He knew what he was feeling was killing intent, his memories from Zabuza told him that much, however this was on a completely different level and his eyes immediately told him why.

He wasn't facing the Hokage, he was facing the Hokage, his rival, his two teammates AND every ANBU located in the room… now he understood exactly why his sensei didn't want to go in first.

"Uh… hi?" was all he managed to squeak out while under the incredible pressure coming off the occupants of the room.

"Who are you?" the aged leader of the village asked sternly, earning a small raised finger off the currently masked blond.

"A-about to… pass out," he finally managed to say before feeling the killing intent lift substantially, though what was left was still easily on par with what Zabuza could produce (then again, with four kage level ninja and five ANBU operatives, that wasn't particularly surprising).

"I'll ask you one more time, who are you?!" the man known by many as the sandaime Hokage demanded seriously, making the young boy gulp in nervousness at the tone he was being addressed in.

"U-Uzumaki Naruto," instantly he felt the killing intent increase dramatically as the four oldest in the room glared at him with an intensity that he was unsure he could eve match.

"Do not lie to me, Hatake Kakashi has already reported his death and will face disciplinary action upon his return, beyond that you have gotten several aspects of Naruto wrong," Sarutobi Hiruzen stated with a tone so cold it could freeze a star.

Hearing the old man's statement made Naruto's mind jump back into gear, he was being accused of being a liar, beyond that the old man was saying that he had gotten several aspects of himself wrong? Who the hell did he think he was?

"Screw you ya senile old bastard!" instantly the room froze, everyone could do nothing more than stare in shock at the boys words towards the village leader, "how the hell am I supposed to get 'aspects of myself' wrong?! Sure I might not have yelled at you right from the beginning, sure I may not be wearing orange, sure I may not have my team directly beside me!"

The crowd in the office could do nothing more than stare in disbelief at the boy that was now standing up to them, yelling at them as if _they_ were the stupid ones.

"Why don't you try yelling happily when you have four legends and five ANBU all using as much killing intent as possible! Did it ever occur to you that my clothes were destroyed on the mission and I'm just borrowing some of baka-sensei's old clothes?! And did it ever occur to you that baka-sensei decided to hide so he wouldn't be put in this situation?!" Naruto asked the group angrily, earning several sighs upon him finally finishing his little tirade.

"I guess there is a possibility of you being Naruto if you're _that_ rude, however if Kakashi doesn't appear in the next ten seconds," the aged leader was about to say more before he noted Kakashi peeking from behind the door frame, "KAKASHI! Get in here this instant!"

Naruto almost had to do a double take at the sheer speed with which his silver haired Jōnin was at his side and stiff as a log, while he also noted that Sakura and Sasuke were trembling at the entrance, probably scared of facing the combined wrath of all the high level ninja in the office… not that he blamed them.

"Hokage-sama," the masked Jōnin stated as calmly as possible, though there was definitely an undercurrent of fear to his tone.

"Would you like to explain exactly why you deemed it necessary to lie to me in your report?" the old man was definitely not in a happy mood and Kakashi quickly came to the conclusion that if he wasn't careful, it was highly likely he wouldn't leave the room in one piece.

"I did not Hokage-sama, Naruto is clinically dead… it's just that somehow he doesn't seem to realise what that usually entails," and as soon as the Jōnin had finished that statement, the air had once again become saturated with enough killing intent to kill a whale, "I'm serious Hokage-sama, just get a Hyūga or iryō-nin to look over him and you'll understand what I mean."

"Karasu!" the Sandaime commanded, earning an appearance from a bird masked ANBU that immediately placed his hands in a single seal and muttered a word that piqued Naruto's interest 'Byakugan'.

"W-what? H-h-how is that possible?" the ANBU asked after several seconds, earning sharp glares off the four elders at the fact they appeared to be being left out of the loop, "Uzumaki's lungs are not functioning, neither is his digestive tract and to top it off… his heart isn't beating."

The shock that appeared on the faces of the four eldest was definitely one that Kakashi had never seen on them before, even when the Kyūbi had rampaged through Konoha, they had always kept their composure however now, they were suddenly finding out that the usual notions of life and death didn't seem to apply to the blond genin and it was enough to snap them out of their usual states, even if it only lasted for a second at the most.

"See, clinically dead," Kakashi stated bluntly, earning several more glares off the other occupants in the room.

"Do you believe it could possibly be due to 'it'?" an older man wearing a simple kimono with his right arm in a sling and his right eye covered by bandages, asked the silver haired Jōnin.

"Sasuke and Sakura have already discovered the truth concerning the Kyūbi so there is no need to talk around it Danzō-sama," the Jōnin informed the older man calmly before finding himself on the receiving end of more killing intent courtesy of the Hokage.

"Hatake… give me one good reason as to why I shouldn't execute you for breaking that law?" the aged leader asked with a very dangerous glint in his tone.

"Because I was the one that revealed it to them," Naruto decided to speak up for his sensei, after all, he may have been a no good pervert that sent him to the wolves, but he was still his sensei and he'd stick up for the man in situations like this.

Immediately the Killing intent vanished as the nine ninja that weren't members of team seven looked at him in shock.

"Naruto… why did you tell them about the Kyūbi?" Sarutobi asked with a hint of concern in his voice, wondering exactly why the boy had felt the need to tell his teammates about something like that.

"I didn't," came the blonds reply earning several twitches from the other occupants in the room, "alright, it's up."

"What's up?" an old man by the name of Mitokado Homura asked cautiously, apparently he wasn't too happy with the idea of something being done without anyone being forewarned.

_"A mental link, apparently Naruto's decided it's easier to simply show you how Sasuke and Sakura know about the Kyūbi instead of trying to explain," _they heard Kakashi say though it was obvious that he wasn't actually talking, at least as far as they were concerned, having had experience with the Yamanaka clan.

_"Oh that's just great… so we're going to have to put up with the retarded rabbits rants again," _the nine ninja that had been in the room since the beginning blinked in confusion before flinching at the next sound they heard.

_**"FUCK YOU MONKEY! I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU IN THE SLOWEST AND MOST PAINFUL MANNER POSSIBLE WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE!"**_ the four oldest in the room blinked in surprise at the voice they had heard, honestly it was pretty obvious to them exactly what it was.

_"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say bunny," _the flippant way the last loyal Uchiha talked to the great beast told them everything they needed to know, this was a regular occurrence as far as team seven was now concerned.

_"Hey! Don't bring bunny into this Sasuke!" _instantly the group looked at the white rabbit that they had decided to completely disregard that was currently sitting on the blonds shoulder.

_"Oh, sorry but if I remember correctly Haku said it's name was Shiro," _the dark haired avenger stated calmly, earning an angry growl off the blond vampire.

_"His. Name. Is. BUNNY!"_ the group found themselves all sweatdropping at the blonds declaration, however what truly caught the attention of them was the state of the white rabbit.

"Tell me Uzumaki, that rabbit, is it alive?" the man named Danzō asked seriously, something about the rabbit just didn't seem right to him.

"Uh, no, Bunny's my first ghoul!" the whiskered genin exclaimed proudly, earning several blank looks from those that weren't in the know.

"You're first… ghoul?" the only woman amongst the four oldest ninja asked with a hint of curiosity in her eyes as she looked into the completely misted eyes of the rabbit corpse.

"Uh… think of it as a zombie rabbit that is completely obedient to Naruto," Kakashi decided to say hoping that the current events would throw the Hokage and elders off enough to forget about punishing him for risking the villages jinchūriki and the last loyal Uchiha.

"Is this some type of joke Hatake?" the older of the one eyed ninja asked sternly, earning a shake of the man's head.

"No, I most certainly am not joking… I wish I was but I'm not," the silver haired Jōnin muttered the last part under his breath as he remembered the difficulty he had trying to create a way of storing all the corpses Naruto had brought back with them.

"And why do you wish you were?" Sarutobi asked with a hint of suspicion in his tone.

"Because I was the one who had to figure out a way of storing all the corpses Naruto decided to bring back with him," the masked shinobi stated bluntly, earning a few small blinks from the quartet of older ninja.

"Are you saying he has more of these 'ghouls' than just that rabbit?" the old woman asked with a raised eyebrow, earning a nod of confirmation from Kakashi.

"Yes… the one time I counted them, there were approximately one hundred and twenty human corpses under Naruto's command," the sharingan warrior stated with a hint of hesitation in his tone, "including the corpse of Momochi Zabuza."

That got a reaction from the four older ninja and the five ANBU hidden in the room, the mere thought that they now had possession of the corpse of a ninja like Zabuza was really rather advantageous, they could easily dissect it to discover any unknown medicines used by the Kiri ninja and to top it off, if Naruto had the man's sword then they could potentially use it as a bargaining chip if they ever had to deal with Kirigakure.

"This is certainly an unusual situation, so why don't you explain exactly what Naruto is to have such capabilities," the aged leader commanded with a hint of curiosity in his tone.

_**"A vampire, a bloodsucking, parasitical, abomination of absolute evil!" **_the Kyūbi's voice rung out through their heads, earning raised eyebrows from the eldest ninja.

"Outside of the 'absolute evil' part… he's telling the truth," the blond haired genin admitted, earning more curios looks off all the ninja that weren't members of team seven that currently resided in the room.

_**"Really? Given the sort of things you did to those mercenaries I'm inclined to say that you're already becoming corrupted by the dark side of your nature," **_the giant fox once again decided to open its mouth, making Sarutobi's eyes narrow.

"Sorry, could you excuse me for a minute?" Naruto asked politely before closing his eyes.

_**"AARRGGHH! STOP IT! HELP ME! I'M SORRY! PLEASE STOP! I PROMISE I'LL BE A GOOD BOY!"**_ the screams that filled the onlookers minds instantly made everyone including team seven look at the vampiric blond with wide eyes before the screaming stopped and Naruto opened his eyes.

"There all done," the blue eyed genin stated chirpily, earning looks of caution off everyone in the room.

"Naruto… what did you just do?" the masked Jōnin asked with clear hesitance in his voice, earning a soft look off his most powerful student.

"I found out I have the power to… manipulate the minds of those with weaker wills than me, the Kyūbi has a weaker will than me so I just did something that hit him where it hurts," the young vampire stated with a hint of sadness in his tone that surprised the onlookers.

"Hit him where it hurts?" the younger of the one eyed ninja's gave a nervous gulp upon hearing that as one of his hands move closer to his groin in case the boy chose to do the same to him.

"Huh? WHAT! NO NOT THERE! HELL THE KYŪBI DOESN'T EVEN HAVE ANYTHING THERE!" the young Uzumaki shouted in outrage, earning several uncertain looks from the others in the room.

"NARUTO-BAKA! HOW THE HELL DO YOU EVEN KNOW SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!" Sakura shouted in anger as she proceeded to punch him in indignation.

"Ow… Sorry Sakura-chan but it's completely… wait, no, it isn't really innocent is it?" the blue eyed genin muttered, earning a few more twitches off the other ninja in the room, "but I only found out because of reading it's mind and learning about its birth!"

Sakura suddenly froze in her position of being ready to punch him again when she registered what he was saying.

"Wait… you know how the Kyūbi was born?" the Hokage asked with wide eyes, earning a nod off the young boy.

_**"Naruto… shut… up… right… NOW!" **_immediately everyone in the room found themselves staring at the boy that apparently knew something the Kyūbi didn't want them to know.

"Sorry, but that's the sore spot he has and I'm not going to tell you anymore than that," the whiskered vampire stated with an air of finality.

"Do you really wish to risk disciplinary action for withholding information Uzumaki?" Danzō asked with an air of authority that completely unfazed the blond.

"And what do you plan to do to me? Hold me in a cell for a few years? Try and torture me? Revoke my ninja license?" the spiky haired youth asked with a hint of mockery in his tone, "in case you didn't know, your cells can't hold me, you wouldn't be capable of holding me in place long enough to torture and would you really risk revoking my license when I could easily run off to another village?"

Throughout Naruto's questioning, the bandaged man's eyes narrowed more at each declaration, however it didn't get any further than that.

"Naruto, Danzō, that is enough!" the stern call from the aged leader caused the young boy to freeze, sure he was confident he could overpower everyone there, hell he was capable of stopping Zabuza's blade with no effort at all back when he first got up as a vampire, so it was obvious that his raw strength far surpassed human limitations… on top of that his fukyuuton was an unknown amongst everyone that wasn't a member of team seven so he was certain that would give him an even bigger advantage.

And it wasn't as if he was completely unskilled either, while he may not have been an expert, he had started to learn water transformation through the memories that Zabuza gave him as well as the taijutsu Zabuza employed whenever he was relieved of his sword. Sure he had been primarily a kenjutsu and ninjutsu specialist but that didn't change the fact he was an elite Jōnin and well versed in most methods of shinobi warfare.

"Hiruzen, you know as well as I do that every piece of information has its value," the one eyed veteran stated with a serious expression that was met by one that was just as serious.

"Indeed I do, however Naruto believes that this information is not important enough to discuss with us when it's compared to the personal nature that it obviously holds for the Kyūbi," the Sandaime stated, earning narrowed eyes from his old rival and his teammates.

"With all due respect Hiruzen, a beast like that doesn't deserve such a thing as privacy," Koharu stated calmly before they were bombarded by another volley of words from the very beast they were talking about.

_**"And you think you're any better? You humans haven't changed have you? You're all still just a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites! You act like I'm a monster for crushing a little bit of your village while you hail the Yondaime for slaughtering thousands of Iwa and Kumo ninja!"**_ the giant fox shouted angrily, causing Naruto to be on the receiving end of several cold glares.

"There is a difference between what the Yondaime did and what you did fox," Homura spat out with obvious distaste for the giant chakra construct.

_**"You're right… he had a choice while I didn't,"**_ once again the room froze and eyes narrowed even further prompting Naruto to explain the situation.

"Kyūbi was being controlled by a sharingan user the night I was born," instantly everyone froze, "hell, from the memories I looked at he was literally ripped out of his last host for the sole purpose of attacking Konoha and forcing the Yondaime to sacrifice himself."

Silence reigned for several seconds as everyone tried to process the information they had just received.

"Are you saying, that the Kyūbi's attack twelve years ago… was nothing more than a plot to kill the Yondaime?" the Sandaime asked with a hint of apprehension in his voice, earning a shrug off the blond.

"I'm not sure but it would at least appear that that was one of the aims," Naruto admitted before letting out a small sigh, "I just don't know enough to say if there were any other reasons outside of killing the Yondaime and damaging Konoha."

_"So it really was an Uchiha that caused it…" _immediately everyone froze as the Hokage thought something that shouldn't have become known by anyone outside of his advisors.

"What… did you just say?" a certain growl made itself known throughout the room that instantly tenfolded the tension that had already permeated the air.

_**"Oh, oh, oh, does anyone have popcorn? This is going to be a complete disaster, I can already tell," **_instantly everyone glared at the blond again as the bijū started to speak at the worst possible time.

_"Shut up, or do you want me to call you by your name in front of everyone?" _the young vampire asked without a hint of amusement in his tone.

_**"Grrr… fine."**_

"Hokage-sama… please, explain, what, you, meant," Sasuke ground out through clenched teeth now that the previous distraction had been dealt with.

"(sigh), fine, we had reason to believe that the Uchiha clan was behind the Kyūbi's attack twelve years ago," the aged leader admitted as calmly as he could while attempting to keep his thoughts clear.

"Because of him being summoned in the middle of the village right?" the whiskered member of the group asked seriously, earning a quartet of nods from the four oldest ninja in the village.

"Unfortunately Naruto is correct, if the Kyūbi had simply rampaged towards the village then it could've simply been that it broke free of the seal but it was summoned into the middle of the village, meaning someone must have been using it," Hiruzen explained to the youngest Uchiha, "and unfortunately, only the Mokuton and Sharingan are known to be capable of controlling it and given the status of the Mokuton…"

"The only option was a sharingan," Sasuke admitted darkly, earning grimaces from the others in the room, "is there anything else you haven't been telling me about my clan?"

"There are some things," the aged leader admitted, knowing that lying could be a potentially disastrous option, "however I am not prepared to tell you the specifics of anything else."

"That is enough, this was supposed to be a simple mission debriefing not a secret swapping party," Homura stated with a serious expression on his haggard face.

"May I be excused Hokage-_sama_?" instantly everyone in the room realised one thing, whatever respect the last, loyal Uchiha once had for the aged leader had taken a serious blow during that meeting.

"Very well… I suppose you probably need some time alone to think," Hiruzen acknowledged, receiving no response from the dark haired genin before he turned and proceeded to leave the office.

_**"Huh? Wait? Where's the blood? Don't tell me that's all that's going to happen? I wanted a bloodbath!" **_and yet again, Naruto was on the receiving end of several glares courtesy of his tenant being an idiot.

"I'm cutting the link now," the spiky haired youth decided before removing everyones ability to listen to the overgrown fox, "and jiji… I'm sorry, I never thought that something like that would happen…"

"That doesn't change the fact that it did," Koharu stated with narrowed eyes, making the blond shrink under the glare that was, for once, actually directed at him as opposed to the fox inside him.

"That is enough Koharu," instantly the old woman looked at the strongest ninja in the village with a firm gaze that did nothing to intimidate the man, "Naruto is still a rookie genin that is yet to learn that every village has secrets that it keeps from even its own ninja, however I will be sure to teach him about that aspect of the shinobi lifestyle when this meeting is over."

"Very well, however I will speak with you about this later Hokage-sama," the aged woman stated with a certain level of respect in her tone, surprising given the more familiar manner that she had spoken to him before.

"And I shall listen to your council then, however for now we've spent enough time dealing with these revelations and I want to hear the official report for the mission to protect the bridge builder Tazuna," the Hokage stated seriously, "then I can decide on an appropriate punishment for Kakashi allowing one of my ninja to die in the field."

Needless to say, Kakashi suddenly found himself wanting to weep at the fact his attempt to distract the aged leader had failed.

"Well… you see…"

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto had to admit, he really felt sorry for his sensei. To think that the Hokage had decided to punish him by confiscating his Icha Icha collection and barring him from the only bookstore in town was a pretty low blow, then again the man was one of the villages best so demotion really didn't do much to him and any other form of punishment was either physical torture (which wasn't good for maintaining the populaces morale) or something that he could easily cop out of by using Kage Bunshin and there really wasn't much that could be done to punish the man.

However none of that was really important right now. For right now Naruto found himself alone in the Hokages office while facing the aged leader.

The ANBU and the old man's advisors had all been ordered to leave however, despite everything that Naruto knew about the Sandaime, he didn't know how the man would react to such a serious breach of security.

"Naruto," the blonde's eyes simply started to look down in shame, out of everyone in the village, the one person that had always been there for him was now talking to him over a matter that he hadn't even thought about until it was too late, "do you understand what you've done?"

"Yes…" the nervous shifting the boy made under the older man's gaze made it very clear that the boy realised he had at the very least done something wrong, however the aged leader wanted to know what the boy thought he had done wrong and ensure that they were on the same page.

"And what did you do wrong?" once again the young boy squirmed under the scrutinising gaze of the strongest ninja in the village.

"I was careless and allowed village secrets into the hands of someone that shouldn't know," the whiskered boy admitted with his head held low.

"Yes, you did," the aged leader agreed, earning a flinch off the genin before him, "that is why, from now onwards you are forbidden from reading the minds of anyone from Konoha."

"Does that include my team?" immediately the robed figure narrowed his eyes at the blonds question before deciding to ask a question instead of simply answer.

"Why are you asking that?" the whiskered child shrunk further under the man's scrutiny.

"I-it's just that… we've probably become closer because of it," the blue eyed genin said nervously.

"And allowed two village secrets to slip in the process," came a cold statement in response, "do you understand what I'm saying Naruto, your ability to read minds is an incredibly dangerous tool that could create serious problems for the village, that is why I am forbidding you from using it."

"But I can only read surface thoughts like that," the blue eyed vampire stated, hoping that the old man wouldn't forbid him from using it completely.

"And look at the damage it has already caused!" Naruto couldn't stop himself from shrinking back upon hearing the aged leader snap at him over his defence, "the knowledge of the Kyūbi has already been shown to be easily passed out when you connect to others and the worst part of all, is that now Sasuke will undoubtedly start questioning his place in this village!"

Naruto quickly found himself feeling more and more upset at the current situation, yes he made mistakes but that didn't mean he couldn't learn from them, that he couldn't practice at making his mind reading powers more powerful, make it possible for him to do things like put in a delay or a censor to stop others from learning things they shouldn't know.

The old man didn't need to completely forbid the action though and that combined with a bit of information he had collected from the bijū inside him made his anger swell and his eyes to take on a blood red hue.

"AND WHAT ABOUT ME?!" immediately the old leader lost his steam as the young blond before him shouted at question he didn't understand, "all my life, all my life I've doubted my place in this village! Every morning in front of the mirror I kept asking myself 'why do they hate me? What have I ever done to them to make them hate me so much?'! Every morning I was left wondering if my parents had abandoned me! Wondering if anyone ever loved me!"

"And then this happens… and I find out you've been lying to my face all my life! You always denied knowing why the people hated me! You always lied whenever I asked if you knew who my parents were!" and now Sarutobi found himself growing cold, he had already suspected that Naruto knew about his parents after discovering the boy had invaded the Kyūbi's mind, however he certainly didn't expect the boy to explode like this.

"So tell me, is the reason you're forbidding me from reading minds because it's dangerous for the village… or is it just because it's dangerous for you?" Naruto found himself finishing in a cold tone as he stared at the aged leader in front of him, his mind already open to the older man's thoughts and immediately identifying the problem.

"So you're just a coward trying to hide from your mistakes huh?" the red eyed genin asked before letting out a sigh of displeasure, "you know I used to respect you but now…"

"Naruto, I understand what you are saying however there is something you need to realise," Sarutobi stated seriously, "while I may be covering up my mistakes, it is because those mistakes could put the village in danger if they got out."

"That doesn't change the fact that you're being a coward about it," Naruto told the older of the two who simply closed his eyes and took a calming breath.

"And what makes you think that?" Hiruzen asked, deciding that it was best to see exactly why the young boy believed what he did and address the issues directly.

"Because instead of letting me train and learn how to make my ability more selective, you're just ordering me to stop," the vampiric child stated with a cold tone.

"Because you are not authorized to know most of these secrets," the strongest ninja in the village stated seriously, making the blonds eyes narrow even further.

"So you want it that way then… fine, from now on, I won't read anyone's mind," the spiky haired youth finally relented, earning a slight softening of the older man's expression, "and you will leave me alone unless it's to assign a mission to my team."

That statement caught the old man off guard, he had never expected the young boy to attempt to sever his ties with him, the boy had essentially been like a surrogate grandson to him over the past decade or so, to find out that the boy wanted nothing to do with him anymore was surprising to say the least.

"Naruto," the white robed leader stated with a sigh before he found himself cut off again.

"That's Genin Uzumaki to you, Hokage-_sama_," the masked child stated seriously, "if you aren't prepared to trust me then I'm not prepared to treat you as anything more than a superior officer."

"I see, then I suppose I should give you an actual punishment for allowing village secrets to be passed on," the aged leader stated with an air of finality, hoping that such an action would cause the boy to reconsider.

"And what do you plan on doing? Execute me? I don't know if it'll work given that I'm already dead," the spiky haired youth stated with an unseen grin.

"Maybe not, but I can do something like I did with Kakashi to you," the Sandaime stated calmly, "how would you like to be incapable of eating ramen ever again?"

"Fine," the shock that appeared on the old man's face made the blond smirk, obviously the man had never considered the possibility that he wouldn't argue, "after all, I don't need to eat anymore, I'd just advise that you supply me with a regular supply of blood or you might find yourself down a few villagers."

"Is that a threat?" the coldness in the Kage's voice would've made Naruto flinch if he had been warm blooded, however since he wasn't he didn't.

"No, just a statement, after all, just because I don't need to eat doesn't mean I don't need to feed," the casual manner in which the blond made his claim actually made the old man's blood run cold, "now if that's all, I think I'll be leaving now, Hokage-_sama_."

"Na- genin Uzumaki, if you _ever_ prove yourself to be a danger to this village, I _will_ deal with you, do you understand?" the Hokage stated with the utmost seriousness in his voice.

"If I'm ever a threat to this village, it'll be because you made me one," the still red eyed genin stated as he reached halfway towards the door before he finally left the room and the aged leader behind.

"Dammit… why does he have to be so hard headed?" and with that the strongest ninja in the village put his palms on his face as he tried to suppress the headache he had developed during his latest, incredibly stressful meeting.


End file.
